Panic took my breath away from me. It held it strong, leaving my head to spin and my lungs to ache. I sucked in a quick, flustered breath between my teeth.
A sharp crack of breaking bone sent my heart into a spasm. I stared at the man who lay on the ground, blood trickling down the side of his face. His dark hair was clumped with dirt. Relief flooded through me when he moaned.
“Enough!” I barked, my hand gripping the guard who was ready to give another beating. “If he is too damaged, I won’t be able to take his Spyrit.”
The elderly man flinched away from my touch, his fist clenching and unclenching. Blood coated his knuckles and I fought against the disgust in my stomach. He didn’t need to know that I never intended to take it at all, but it was all about making it seem real.
He grabbed onto the chains that bound Blake’s hands together and pulled, dragging Blake’s body along the corridor.
Raena and Po
“It’s just through there,” Pollis whispered. We crouched behind a large crate on the other side of the castle. A large barn stood before us, wider than any horse stable I had ever seen. After I had described the image Amber had shown me, Pollis had known exactly where to go. Our breathing was ragged and a sharp pain stabbed my side. I gasped at the air as quietly as I could. Not an easy task. “Ladies first,” Pollis smiled, gesturing for me to lead the way. I crept around the side slowly. Two guards paced before the large wooden door, swords hanging from their hips. Two I mouthed at Pollis. He nodded, but his scepticism pulled at my chest. I touched his mind to hear his silent thoughts. And probably several more inside, oh I hope she can fight. I frowned at him. I could do more than fight. Taking a deep breath, I pushed forward, stepping out from the crate, Pollis only a few steps behind me. “I brought you, as Tynan ordered,” Pollis said loudly. His staged whisper was ridiculou
Exhaustion weighed down every muscle in my body. Even though this was true, I felt empty and hopeless. The memory of Deakin’s words and his tumultuous emotions resulted in fresh, silent tears flowing down my cheeks. Amber nickered softly underneath me, echoing my sadness. I wrapped my arms around her sweaty neck and cried into her. Her desolate thoughts were so strong and potent, my heart was aching, and my mind was begging for it to end. The longer we travelled, the more I retreated further into myself, as our ragtag group of escapees swiftly moved along the worn path back to Callad. Alana, who had suffered the least physical injuries, set up the camps every time we stopped, which was not very often. When we did stop it was never for long. The fear of pursuit was too strong. Without even needing to acknowledge it, we all knew that Tynan would come after us. I was too valuable, and the other two Master Magicians far too powerful for him to not seek retributio
Mistress Jaida’s voice entered my mind. The bubbly personality that I remembered was gone, and had been replaced with one of authority. Come to my room now please, Kida. And if I don’t? I don’t want to say that you will be forced… but I’m not asking you. As she retreated from my mind, I gave a grumbled sigh. We had been back for a total of a week and in that time many people had come knocking on my door and demanding, begging, and even pleading, to speak to me. Jax, Tori, Jaida, even Blake, but I had ignored all of them. All I wanted, was to be alone. That was in the first two days and after that they had stopped coming, as if they had given up. It had taken Midnight’s pleading images of an empty food bowl to rouse me from my despaired, miserable sulking, to leave my room. That had opened the door for people thinking I was ready to be a part of civilisation, and now Jaida had summoned me. By her tone, I knew it would be noth
“What were you even thinking?”His tone was like dunking my head into snow. It stabbed at my heart and stung my face as if he had slapped me.“Wait, don’t answer that. Knowing you, you probably weren’t thinking at all. You never think through the consequences of your actions.”“Hmmm,” was all I could manage to get out, attempting to get my voice low and remorseful. Part of me wanted to bite back, to argue my point, but the other, rather larger part, wanted to shift away from his anger. And honestly, I didn’t care what he said. All that mattered was that Amber was okay. She was the only thing I had left of… I stopped short, closing off the thought before it could finish, my heart squeezing in agony in my chest.Blake ran a hand through his dishevelled hair. At least that hadn’t changed. I still drove him insane. He glared at me with his burning eyes.His time within Tynan’s cel
Alana’s eyes narrowed at me from the small opening in her door, the gloomy grey colour swirling around menacingly.“Do you realise what you are asking?” she asked for the fifth time, sounding still so shocked. “We would become linked.” A smirk touched her lips. “And you would have to follow my instructions.”I folded my arms across my chest. “I know that, but… it’s better than the other option.”She eyed me knowingly, a stab of sadness hitting me square in the chest. “You will have to face it sooner or later.”“I think I prefer later.”She snorted and opened the door wider to let me in.“Come in.”Her living room was small and cosy, something I never would have expected from her. It felt almost homely.Three puffy, green armchairs were positioned in a half-circle around a wooden table and each faced the empty fireplace, but al
“Stupid. Evil. Horrible. Man.” Each word that came through my gritted teeth was punctuated as I kicked and punched the heavy bag that hung in the training room. Sweat showered my skin, and my face was flushed with effort. I had been training for over an hour now, hoping to release some of the pent-up frustration. But it seemed that my anger was a bottomless pit of energy that I continued to pull from. It wasn’t helping at all. After spending every waking moment of the last two days with the mystery girl, I was still no closer to solving her unknown ailment, or the irritating feeling that kept niggling at me, that somehow I knew her. All I had gotten was that she was afraid, deathly afraid, and that she wasn’t dead. Yet. “Hope. You. Die. You. Son. Of. A. Bi - ” “Hey now, watch the language,” a smooth, cocky voice interrupted. I stop and turned, pulling magic to my hands, ready to attack. My breath was coming in short gasps, as I c
She looked just how I remembered - Perfect and simply beautiful. Of course she did. My eyes mentally eye rolled at how frustrating it was to look upon her perfection.Isla gave me a large smile when she looked up from her desk, a pair of slim glasses atop her nose.“Kida?” She tried to hide the shock from her expression, but I felt it. She either didn’t expect me, or didn’t expect me to come to her looking like I did. I was more than sure if was the latter, certain I probably looked a mess.“Isla.”“How good to see you.” She removed her glasses and indicated the chair in front of her desk.I nodded at Wells, who had escorted me to see her, before taking a seat in the chair. It was hard backed and highly uncomfortable, probably intentionally done to keep the other person on edge the entire time. It was very clever, really.It hadn’t taken me long to find them. After all, I knew if I found
As soon as we got in sight of the school, I dropped Blake’s hand, my mood sour. I couldn’t believe he had been following me. Again! Now that I had released my anger at Isla, the thought had come to the front of my mind again.“Did you really have to follow me?” I said, trying to contain the emotions in my voice. “I am not a child.”Blake gave me a sharp look. “Obviously I did. You keep trying to get yourself killed.”“I can take care of myself.”Blake grabbed my wrist, turning me to face him. Fire trailed along my skin at his touch. My arm jerked back away from him.“Apparently you can’t,” he growled. His eyes had darkened into a look I knew well. He was pissed off at me. “What the hell are you thinking going to Isla for? You can’t trust anything she says.”I sucked in a breath, trying to remain calm. It wasn’t working. He was really getting
My heart felt like it was going to beat right out of my chest and the darkness inside of me swirled, fighting to be released again. Why was everything always so difficult?Tynan had dragged me from the tent only for me to be met with glares of pure, utter hatred. Only fourteen of the hundred or so Dorcha Fae had survived my blast of power, most of them women. Each of them had the tell-tale veins snaking up their neck, but the only one with pure dark eyes left was Cillian. One I recognised, was the Fae who had been taking care of Elanora, Aoife.Just the thought of Elanora sent crippling waves of pain through me. I had let her down and failed her. She had suffered so much, lost so much and it was all because of my ineptitude.Aoife met my gaze, the only one of the Fae to not send death glares my way. Her eyes were red-rimmed and the shuddering sadness that enveloped me when she glanced my way, only added to the immense sorrow I already felt.Tynan pulled me along with him, his steps de
Rage and pain. They were powerful emotions that dwarfed anything and everything. And in that moment, they were at the forefront of my mind.The darkness I had kept at bay for so long, thrummed through my body, merging with my Spyrit and boosting my powers. Deakin wasn’t wrong when he said the darkness held so much power. But now I was going to use it against them.Before I could move, I was thrown backwards, launched through the air and landed metres away from the altar. Nyssa glared at me, her hands outstretched still after using her magic to send my flying, and a smug smirk lifted her lips. She had just signed her death warrant.Hurling myself forward, the manacles around my hands burned as magic poured into them, melting them, and freeing me. The Fae were running everywhere, some moving to intercept me, others running in the opposite direction.With a thrash of my arm, I threw power towards a group to my left, knocking them to their feet. It cleared my path as I ran full speed towar
When I woke, my head thumped out a steady beat and it felt like I hadn’t had a drink of water in so long. My mouth was dry and chalky. Pain radiated through every fibre of my being. My throat continued to burn as if I had tried to swallow a burning flame, the flesh sensitive every time I tried to swallow. The glow that had illuminated my skin, was snuffed out and darkness pressed heavily around me. The only sound that echoed in the small, metal cage was the sound of my own choked breathing. I wasn’t even sure if Cristian was still in here with me until I heard his soft whisper. “Finally, you are awake!” With a groan, I lifted my body up, leaning heavily against the warm metal. Now that I was accustomed to the darkness, I could make out the tiniest sliver of light coming in, the colour a deep red. “How long have I been out?” “Not long, maybe ten minutes,” he responded softly. I groaned, running my hand through my hair. Thank the Magicians I was only out for a short time. I knew as
When Cillian escorted me out of the tent, I could hardly contain the spike of adrenaline that surged through my body. Dozens, if not hundreds of men and women lingered around a grouping of tents pitched on an outcropping of stone. Just beyond that, was a small lake, the water lapping against the shore with each shift of the slight breeze. Each one of them, I assumed, were Dorcha Fae. It was easy to see why. Most, if not all, had the visible, dark black veins crawling along under their skin. Some were like Cillian where the veins had travelled so extensively that their eyes were completely swallowed by the black. Others were in between and some only had minimal black veins tracing along their hands, but not anywhere near their faces. I was oddly curious, but also terrified. What in the Magicians name had they been doing to cause such a disfiguration to their body? Whatever it was, I was more than sure that it would be nothing I would agree with. Cillian continued to drag me throug
When I woke, everything was shrouded in white. My body ached as I forced my eyes open, blinking rapidly, trying to take in my surroundings. Sitting up slowly, I took in the makeshift cot I was lying in and the soft blue dress that clung to my body. The thought that someone had changed my clothes while I was unconscious sent the darkness within me writhing in pleasure and my breath coming in gasps. I tried to move, but was jerked back by a large, metal chain attached to my wrist that I hadn’t even noticed before. It ripped at my shoulder, sending pain spasming through it and along my arm. A low hiss escaped my lips. Kida? A soft voice whispered in my mind. My head whipped around, cracking my neck as I was met with the deep, green terrified eyes of Elanora. “Oh, my Magicians, Elanora!” A sad smile lifted her lips as my eyes hungrily took in her appearance. All things considered, she looked healthy enough and unharmed. Dark circled clung underneath her red rimmed eyed as if she had
If there was ever a moment that I thought I might burst from my own emotions, it was now. Deakin’s kiss was ravenous against my lips, his tongue forcing its way into my mouth and battling for dominance before he sucked my lower lip into his mouth. A breathy moan escaped from my chest, causing my cheeks to flare with embarrassment at the pure sound of lust it held. It seemed to be the thing that snapped Deakin out of his haze as his movements stopped and he pulled back to stare at me. His iridescent gaze met mine, a look of confusion flickered through his eyes before they seemed to shutter and the darkness swept through them, taking him away from me. Deakin lurched backwards off me. A ripple of pure agony swept through my body in response. “What the fuck Kida?” Disgust clouded his features, sending another shard of pain slicing through my chest. He really knew how to affect me instantly. “You jumped me,” I said breathlessly, righting myself and brushing the dirt from my clothes a
We travelled for what felt like days without stopping, but I knew was merely only hours, until my eyes felt like they were about to fall out of my head. The sun had set long ago, and the almost full moon hanging in the dark, inky sky was a haunting reminder that time was running out. We didn’t have long to reach the desert before they sacrificed Elanora. It was the ever-present thought that hung in the back of my mind, continuously being dragged to the front. Time was slipping through my fingers. Deakin spoke very little as the time stretched out, seeming content with his own silence. I could slowly feel his magic starting to thrum back to life, its potency tingling along my spine, knowing that if he wanted to, he could simply incapacitate me. The rational part of my mind questioned as to whether it would work anymore, or if I was now stronger than his particular brand of magic. When I finally brought Midnight to a stop late into the night, my body aching with fatigue and my stomac
Leaving the mysterious Orion in charge of the two horses, I ran as quickly as I could back along the path and past the stables, only slowing down once the school came into view. It would look rather suspicious if I was spotted running around the school and in the direction of the dungeon no less. As I reached the final door of the dungeons, the two burly guards looked up, their gazes narrowing in at me. “I’m here to question the prisoner again,” I commanded, trying to force as much authority into my voice in the hopes that it would drown out the ever-growing levels of anxiety that were building within my chest. One wrong move, and all of this would be for nothing. The guards spared each other a look, before opening the door. I could feel their eyes burning into my back as I moved past them, a nervous energy sparking in the air that tingled along my skin and sent the hairs on my arm standing on end. It wasn’t until I had moved past the line of magicians along the corridor, that I
Halfway to the dungeon, I realised that I was still dressed in the infirmary gown. I was too distracted, too absorbed in the feeling that still lingered on my skin from Blake’s touch, to think about much else. But that needed to change.I took a quick turn and headed to my room, closing the door behind me as quickly as I could. Even though I now had the strength and control to be able to shut off my connection to magic, I was far too exhausted and overwhelmed right now. Every emotion from the passing students, guards and teachers had washed across my skin, making it even harder to think clearly.But now wasn’t the time to get lost within their emotions. I had too much to do.Moving swiftly around my room, I threw on a pair of riding pants and a shirt, sliding a jacket over my shoulders. My leather satchel hung from on the edge of one of the chairs and I snatched it up, shoving spare clothes and things I would need into it as quickly as I could.A tingling feeling washed over me, and my