Mathieu (White Flame Trilogy) - By Paula Flumerfelt Page 0,105
ball in the darkness. He’d never known his parents and that was a hole punched in his chest he couldn’t heal. There was no chance he’d even find them now, and even if he did, what would he say? How did one face the family that hadn’t wanted him when he was a tiny, helpless child? Anger at his mother for not loving him like a mother should welled inside of him and he wiped his eyes. It wasn’t his fault. If she was heartless enough to not love her flesh and blood, he wasn’t going to lose a part of himself over it. She was a horrible, horrible woman. No mother of his. He turned away from his own crying self, lying to his own mind and saying he could move past that hurt.
And then there was his father. Did he look like that man? Mathieu shared his blood, but what more in common did they have? Wasn’t a father supposed to teach his son to be a man? Show him how to protect the things he loved? The basis of his insecurities stemmed for a non-existent father, and he knew it. A father was supposed to be the person he learned from, he could turn to when things got tough. But he didn’t have that, never would. There was no one for him to rely on, no one for him to turn to for advice.
Sometime during his painful musings about his father, he started to see it. He wasn’t exactly sure what he was seeing, but very slowly, something took form before his eyes. But, then he realized it was a person, something like a teenager. He was blurry at first and Mathieu could only see that he had ruffled brown hair that stopped just before it was in his eyes.
The longer he looked at the other, the clearer he became. The next thing to come into focus was his sloped nose that ended in a button-like point, his mouth quirked up at the corner in a soft smile. His eyes were undistinguishable, but Mathieu could see that he had a few very light freckled over the bridge of his nose. The teen’s skin was as smooth as porcelain, a healthy glow to it.
It was as the other’s eyes, big and dark gray, came into focus that a full smile took his face. Then, they mystery he reached out into the space between them.
Mathieu opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Frowning he lifted a hand out to meet the other’s, but he still could see nothing but the boy. He tried to move closer to him, but the tingling from before became a sharp stabbing that held him back. Just as slowly as the male had appeared, so did the object that appeared in his outstretched hand. It was small, no bigger than a tennis ball. The thing was sleek white with one icy blue eye and one celadon green. The nose was a light pink that wiggled as the thing sniffed the air and its tail twitched.
The boy moved closer to him, the thing still held between them. Mathieu wasn’t completely positive, but he was pretty sure that the small thing was a Shadowrider. Needing to know, he kicked out with his feet and pulled at the darkness with his arms, determined to reach the pair. The stabbing pain turned into a raking feeling that could be equated to skin being ripped straight off his body. Tears of pain started to blur his vision, but still he pushed on. It couldn’t be much further to reach them. Just as he felt the darkness give an inch, the boy frowned and tilted his hand, dropping the adorable thing.
A silent scream ripped from Mathieu’s throat as he ignored his mind when it told him he couldn’t fight the darkness, and dived for it. He sailed through the nothing and managed to catch it, curling protectively around it and rolling, slamming into the boy who toppled and fell on top him.
And then the three of them were being pulled, practically sucked up out of the darkness as if through a straw. Up, up, up they flew, going faster and faster until the darkness broke and they were in a crumpled ball on the upstairs floor of Nathan’s house.
Blinking away the stars he was seeing, Mathieu looked around, eyes resting on Solomon, who was holding Tesla by the scruff. Sorry, Mathieu…he made me. The black Shadowrider whimpered.