“I want to go outside,” I said quietly to my two guards as we walked swiftly away from the dungeons. I had no idea how they would take this, but I wouldn’t take no for an answer.
They exchanged a strange look but gave no response. Raena headed down a corridor I couldn’t remember seeing before. This made me worry. Were they going to take me to an isolated part of the castle and trap me? I tried to get a sense of their emotions, but I kept coming up against what felt like a stone wall.
Worry bubbled in my stomach. We stopped in front of a small wooden door. I glanced at the both of them, panic taking hold. I attempted to calm myself down but nothing worked.
Pollis grabbed my arm lightly, making me flinch away from him, his touch warm. “Don’t do anything stupid or it’s our heads.”
Based on the large smirk Pollis gave me, I could only imagine the confused look I was giving him right now. They weren’t going
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