Cain can barely stand on his feet.He visibly trembles with how much pain he’s in but the guards help me lift him despite my tears and when I see how much Cain is enduring the pain, how much he glances at me from time to time, telling me to be strong and to not cry so much because maybe my tears also hurt him the way his injuries hurt me, I pull myself together and try to be brave.I cry silently instead.I feel like I went on a trip just to come back and find a wild animal maiming something that means so much to me, and then that animal looks me straight in the eye and tells me it’s my fault.“You refused to wake up.”I glance at Lyros and at the look of slight remorse on his face, I scoff.My scoff betrays all the hurt I feel right now and the expression on his face falls even faster. He clenches his jaw and he clenches his hands into fists, but apart from that he says nothing and does nothing.I look away because he’s not worth the time and the effort. If he hates us so much why do
Adelaide stares at me with eyes full of anger and disappointment and I can't help the way my body responds. I go slack in her arms. I want to say something. I want to do something, but I don't think it’s worth it. I can see her anger in the way she heaves while speaking. It’s potent in the way her eyes lock onto mine with fury. I want to feel disappointed at her reaction. She isn’t the one who has a sear permanently on their back. She isn’t the one who will forever remember the burning smell of their own flesh. I was branded like a slave, and at some point, that is what we both are. Adelaide seems to have lost sight of the fact that I was with Lyros before her. I was the one who took his beatings and impossible tasks. He can be violent without stopping when he wants to be. The only difference with her is that he doesn’t seek to hurt her directly, he wants to preserve her beauty, he doesn’t want her marked. A chuckle escapes my lips as I look at Adelaide and the fury in her eyes
Cain….. Speaks like a fucking martyr and I don’t want him to be that! I feel emotions roil in me, the urge to scream at him and tell him he isn’t meant to sacrifice himself is heavy in me but I bite them down.I look at Cain in this moment and I can’t help but feel the way I view him change. It’s a remodeling in my mind.Cain stares at me intently and says the words that finally break me.“All my life, Adelaide, I've never had a family. You guys are my family. I protect those I love and I would protect myself… but this isn’t something I can fight against Lyros on. It was either me, or any one of you.I couldn’t allow myself to do that.”I break down with the force of another sob and the way it courses through my body makes my teeth chatter. This feeling is heavy.It feels like a boulder on my chest.I love Cain. The feelings I have for him surpass anything I have ever felt before, they eclipse the pain of my parents, the struggles for my survival, my feelings for him outshine all of
Safira almost bites the healer’s head off. Cain asked for her and a guard helped us go find her. By the time she got here a healer was already working on Cain’s back. According to the healer, Lyros had touched her. Not in a sexual way but it was intimate all the same. She walked in with ethereal light surrounding her. Every step she took shuddered with a primordial force and I felt awed by it. She said Lyros poured power into her. If she didn’t use it the way he wished, he would cause the energies to revolve and kill her. She looked excited and scared out of her wits at the same time. Safira arrived looking colder than the northern Kingdoms. “I said the skin over that part isn’t mended well!” The healer shudders yet again and Cain sucks in a breath. I summon the courage to do something I have never done before. I walk over to Safira, take her by the arm gently, and I pull with as much firm force as I can. When she turns to glare at me it’s a fearsome thing to behold, but I've
“How is this part of what training entails?”I sigh and turn to look at Safira.“Lying on the grass is a way to connect to the earth around us. The spirit of nature.”“The spirit of nature will hardly come to your rescue when you’re engaged in battle Adelaide. Stop messing around and get up so we can actually start doing something worthwhile.”I groan at her words because this is impossible. It’s difficult enough to fall asleep on the bare floor without being questioned every five minutes as to the aim of this activity, talk less of when I'm getting questioned serially. “Don’t you just feel like resting sometimes, Safira? Just taking a break to escape all this chaos?”I don’t see Safira’s reaction but her voice is melancholy when she speaks.“I would, but not when lives are on the line. Your life and possibly Cain’s rides on if you’re successful in the tournament.”Something in my chest deflates at Safira’s words because she might be right. There’s hardly anything stopping Lyros from
“I saw him.” A frown lines my face as I stare at the queen, confused.“You saw who?”“I saw him. My mate.” Her voice cracks heavily as she speaks and she wipes tears hurriedly from the side of her face. “Ashryn. I saw Ashyrn.”Chills run down the length of my spine and my skin pebbles with goosebumps.“You… saw the dead king?”She nods and something at the back of my mind tingles. It’s the tingle of suspicion so I dare to touch this subject.“The child you had with the King, the one with the dark hair and white eyes. What happened to him?”Queen Diane freezes over like a lake in deep winter. The look in her eyes goes cold and she turns away.Confusion ripples through me like a wave.“Did I say something wrong?”I get no response yet again and a strange sort of anger bubbles up in me.“One of my friends almost died yesterday while I was here with you. I didn’t wake up so a psychopath had him bound down and burnt, continuously. I was here with you while someone close to my heart was s
“The Lycan’s flame.”Ashryn the Great holds up something that burns. I look around and see I am in a room. Metal equipment of various lengths and sizes are littered around and Diane is here too. Her hair has been let down and it looks so silky it’s almost like a curtain but she has curls to them. There’s a frown on her face.She does not look happy. King Ashryn turns to look at her and he frowns, concerned,“You don’t like it, my love?”Diane’s frown falls as her husband addresses her and she sighs.“It’s beautiful. Powerful, dare I say it, but you know this isn’t safe right?”I nod along with her. Ashryn was a good king according to what I read but this might just be the only mistake he made.I feel the Lycan’s flame power up as he commands it to. The air becomes charged with energy, the kind that makes you feel like you’re breathing better and the world has suddenly become a million times clearer. I find it weird that I can feel this but I can. I can see my hands even.I am standi
“We shouldn’t be doing this.” Darkness. I can’t see anything yet I am in a memory. I can feel where I am right now and I know it’s a large space. “We really shouldn’t be doing this Diane. We could get caught, you could die.” A female voice. One of them should be Diane, but the one who’s speaking, I haven't heard that voice in any of her memories. I’m blind here and it’s disconcerting. I don’t like being trapped in memories blind. Light bursts forth and it almost blinds me. I hiss and avert my face then realize I'm not the only one who’s hissing. “What the fuck Diane?” “I’m sorry, I'm sorry. I didn’t know it would react like that. I swear this thing misbehaves sometimes.” “I shouldn’t go blind because of the staff’s misbehavior, Diane. If anyone should, it’s you. You’re the one who wants to steal it.” I hear someone’s chuckle and I can tell it’s Diane’s. I still can’t see her, I can barely see anything. “Blood’s leaking from my eyes Di, shit.” Magic hums in the air and I hear