Reluctant to let her apart from him, Rhett had Neva in his tightened arms.
He could feel her trembling, so he kissed comfortingly the side of her head.
"Are you hurt?" His breathing was erratic.
Neva shook her head, "No."
"I thought I lost you again," he said in a broken tone.
Neva only whimpered, tightening her arms around his neck.
They were still for only a moment.
Then Neva pulled away, making him lower her feet on the ground.
Her eyes glassy, cheeks tear stained, and lips pouty and downturned.
His eyes softened, fast beating heart buttery and thawing.
And he leaned down... Then she leaned...
Velvet lips meeting and melting.
Slow and passionate, sharing a longing kiss.
Rhett was embraced by Neva wholly again.
And he would gladly allow himself this blessing.
His heart was racing, burying his face in the crook of her neck, deep in her warmth, inhaling her familiar scent of sweet roses.
His Neva was in flesh.
One with him.
And he prayed for approval to let this moment cease.
A world where they could forever be close; a leisure where he could only focus on her.
Blind the minds. Put out the world.
Live with her in the safe.
Live with her in the never ending light.
Then his cold stare was at Raka standing still in a distant.
His face darkened.
Rhett reached behind and felt for his pistol.
A thumb hit on the decocker of the Beretta 92FS, elevating the hammer and then pressed forward on the decocker to enable the safety.
Ishmael just stood there.
Staring at them.
Not a spasm of muscle in his face at Rhett's gory eyes on him.
Or flinch as an arm straightened with a gun pointed at his head.
His index finger curled to pull the trigger.
"He said I could get my memories back." Neva's muffled words made him pause.
"Who?"
"Jeriah."
Rhett raised a brow.
Neva pulled away and fastened their eyes.
The pistol had now been lowered by his side, and she hadn't yet noticed he got a weapon in his hand.
"Jeriah. He was the one who took both me and Ishmael to Miraeth." Her voice was edgy and hurried.
Rhett frowned.
His hold still clenched on the grip of the gun.
"I know it's hard to believe—"
Neva couldn't finish her statement as a car zoomed towards them. He turned and saw a black Wrangler jeep approaching. Climatically the screeching tyres came to a stop ten feet distant afar from the Aston Martin.
Sky stepped out, immediately aiming a Sig Sauer P320 at Ishmael.
But Ishmael's bottomless eyes were on Neva, making Rhett put an arm over her and shield her behind.
"Put your hands up!"
Ishmael did not heed her.
Sky gritted her teeth and raised the gun over her head.
A loud bang resonated in the air.
Neva let out a small yelp, clutching onto Rhett, fisting his jacket.
Silhouettes of birds fleeing out the woods and accross the sky.
The faint smoke rising from the muzzle.
Sky pointed the pistol at Ishmael again.
"It's over, Raka.
Put your hands above your head."
Ishmael clenched his jaw.
"Get in the car."
"Rhett don't—" "Get in the car Neva." His tone was slightly harsher.
Neva's face withered.
A little something, a cracking in her heart.
"We have to evacuate the city." Rhett cleared. His voice gentler.
"There's a wildfire. An evacuation notice has been issued."
Neva's face became ashened.
Sky's strides towards Ishmael were methodical and delineating.
Blue cat eyes calculating and cautious.
Neva could hear over her own loud, ragged breaths now; faint in her ear the distant noises of ambulances and the harsher blowing wind bringing the smoke lingering in the air.
Persisting, increasing a distinct wildfire growing closer. The sky had become a sombre of darker shade, the reason for the calling of an apocalypse.
"Neva," Ishmael's wounded voice broke Neva out of her maze.
She glanced at him.
An abandoned man.
Weary standing alone on the road.
A sudden pity, an empathy squeezing her chest.
Rhett aimed.
Ishmael stood there unrelenting as Sky and Rhett both cornered him.
And the more Neva felt this moment grinding slower, longer; conflictingly her breathing became faster and shorter.
Eyes dimmed and abandoned.
For she knew the dream a realism.
Still, this parallel of world running her over like rogue waves.
Before Neva realised, the andrenaline rush blistering her mind.
She was infront of Rhett.
His confused gaze on her hands over his own grip on the pistol.
"You can't hurt him," and she saw the immediate mold of the faint glint left in his eyes.
"I'm going to Miraeth. Only Ishmael can lead me there." She was stern.
And in that moment she had made up her mind.
She wouldn't dare break Jeriah's responsibility on her; wouldn't dare defy the Lord's purpose for her.
Rhett's frowned deepened.
"What are you saying Angel?"
"You wouldn't understand." She guided him to lower the gun, then she turned to Ishmael.
"I want you to take me to Miraeth."
Ishmael's slouched shoulders lifted slightly.
His mouth agaped to response, but closed again.
"Tell me Ishmael—" Neva was cut off as Rhett gripped her arm and made her face him.
"What has he done to you? Do you even know what you're saying?"
He was trying to make sense of her informations.
Speculative at her being forced and restrained, influenced by Ishmael.
"I'm bound to a divine purpose Rhett." Neva's chin trembled.
"I'm afraid to rebel against it."
These details didn't help him at all. And he knew she was burdened as she lowered her head; deliberating for the right words.
A battle of adeptness to illustrate in her mind; against the hopelessness that he wouldn't trust her.
Rhett tenderly grabbed her chin and made her look at him.
Tears falling from those glittery cocoa orbs.
"I believe you."
Neva's eyes rounded a little.
"Whatever this purpose of yours is, I will assist you. Even to the depths of the world. Nowhere you go, I don't follow."
Rhett revealed a small airy smile at her tightened, downturned lips.
Waterworks bubbling in her cocoa pools.
A choked sob escaped Neva's lips as she suddenly embraced him.
Rhett released a sigh. Arms circling around her.
Then he looked over at Sky, who now stood parallel to them.
She raised a brow and shrugged her shoulders in confusion.
"Not today." Rhett instructed.
Sky looked at him as if he'd lost his mind. Her brows furrowed at his stupidity.
"He's a criminal Czar." She seethed.
Rhett glanced away, rubbing a weeping Neva's back. His battle against his heart and mind.
"I–I was afraid you'd let me go alone with him."
"I could never." He coldly said.
"Jeriah said the pandemic was just the beginning.
And I had already forseen this wildfire."
Rhett didn't say anything.
"Where are the kids?" She asked.
"At home. Come on we're supposed to leave now."
"What day is it?"
"21st October."
"So I've been away for less than a day?"