from me, a steady flow of pain running through my body as the fog slowly begins to lift from my mind. My fingers twitch first, and I feel hard ground beneath me, my body laying on its side. A groan escapes me next as the coolness of the ground seeps into me despite the sheen of sweat coating my body. I blink my eyes open slowly, my hazy vision gradually coming into focus as I see dark-gray stone in front of me. I cough, my chest rattling, but I inhale deeper on the next intake of air to calm myself. The scent of damp hits me along with distant smells of other people, musk and old blood, causing me to shiver.
I moan softly as the pain fades to a deep ache, and I slowly stretch out my limbs, bringing my arms out in front of me. The sound of clanking brings my attention down to my wrists, and my heart drops like stone. I stare. Stare and stare and stare unblinkingly at the harsh metal surrounding my wrists. I follow the chains that are attached to each wrist in a trance, examining each loop until they end, welded into the hard stone ground.
I maneuver myself into a sitting position, still staring at the cuffs and chains attached to me, as ragged breaths leave me, providing the only sound I can hear in the empty space. I grab hold of the chains with both hands with my heart in my throat, and yank on it, trying to get it to come free as a whimper leaves me. I get to my shaky legs, looking around to see if there is something that can help me, but I’m surrounded by stone with bars on one side of the room. I’m in a cell. The only light I can see is coming from the hallway on the other side of the bars.
I pull on the chain more, backing up as far as the chain allows me and pull with my whole body, the cuffs digging into my flesh. I ignore the pain and the blood welling there, and just keep pulling and pulling, trying to get them off. Oh, Gods. Get it off, get it off, get it off. A cry escapes me, my body trembling, but I yank harder, a gritted scream coming from me when they don’t move. I collapse to the ground, my fingertips digging into the stone.
“No, no, no,” I whimper, moving over to where the chains are attached to the floor. I grab the metal in my hands, yanking, pulling, wrenching to get it to break open until I exhaust myself.
I thought I had escaped this.
I fall on my back, taking painful breaths of air as I squeeze my eyes shut until I have my breathing under control. I don’t have my blade, my boots have been taken. I’m barefoot, only having my t-shirt and shorts. I don’t know where Josh or Kade are. The link is shut, closed off to me. Runa’s curled up inside of me, exhausted from trying to fight off whatever sent us into unconsciousness, and I don’t even know where the fuck I am.
A scream comes from somewhere, and I jolt, my heart racing as I look toward the bars with wide eyes and into the cell across from me. Nothing moves in there, and when the scream stops there is only silence. Only a few drops of water leaking through small crevices above me can be heard. There is no sign of anything.
I move until I sit cross legged on the ground, the chains not long enough for me to reach any of the walls to lean against. I face the bars and try to ignore the metal around my wrists and the memories that try to invade my mind of the last time I was chained. I breathe deep and get a hold of myself. I can’t think if I panic. I need to get out of here and find my pack. Then I need to find somewhere safe for us. Eridian isn’t that place anymore. I swallow roughly over the thought of Solvier. He was connected to the barrier, had his essence intertwined with it, and now the barrier is gone.
I close my eyes and block out the pain. I need rest to gather my strength, but I suspect it won’t be possible because it’s not just iron in these chains that encase my wrists. I need to try though, because while I don’t know what’s coming, I know it won’t be good. How did this even happen? Why did Darius break our vow and bring everyone to Fenrikar… That’s where I am, where he said he was taking us. I must be in Wolvorn Castle, in the dungeons.
The reminder of Darius and the way he looked at me with lifeless eyes sends a shiver down my spine. He’s looked at me coldly, in fury and disgust before, but never in the way he looked at me after holding that crystal.
I rest my head on my knees and wrap my arms around myself. I need to rest. I need to prepare for anything, everything. Whatever knocked me out has drained me. If I could just talk to Darius… He will see reason, he has to. I’m not a traitor, I don’t understand where he’s got that from. I’ve done nothing but protect people and give them safety and a home.
Both of which we don’t have anymore.
Tears leak from my closed eyes, and I give in to the urge to shut down for a little while, to let my body try and recover from exhaustion and my bleeding wrists and cheek. I lay down, curl in on myself and pretend I’m not chained to the floor, but back home in Eridian, where we lived our simple life.
Six days. It’s been six days since I’ve been down here. I’ve been doing my best to track time with the light coming and going from the hallway on the other side of the bars. The only time anyone comes near me is when the guards come to give me water and small pieces of bread at random times. I take it without a word, not wanting to receive anything from them, but knowing I need any source of energy I can get.
I sit in the center of my cell as footsteps sound far away from the left. Fast paced and hard. I lift my eyes to the bars, waiting. This isn’t a guard that’s coming. A figure rounds the corner, and when his all too familiar green eyes meet mine, my heart kicks up a notch. He looks over me, from the wound on my cheek from Leo’s arrow to my frame that has lost a little weight. Then he notices the blood on my wrists. He stares at them for longer than I thought he would care to before he puts his hand to the bars. Some of the bars disappear, just enough that he can pass through and step into my cell, still clad in his armor.
“Where’s Kade?” I ask him, my voice scratchy. I stand on my feet, wavering slightly but pushing through, not wanting to be at a disadvantage. Not wanting him to see me weaker than I already am.
“He has been seen by a healer and is waiting in the great hall to be put on trial.” His voice holds no emotion as he closes the distance between us and grabs hold of my cuffed wrists, running his fingers over where the chains are attached. A glow escapes from them, runes appearing on the cuffs quickly before disappearing again. The chains drop to the floor at my feet, the sound echoing in the space with a loud clang. A thick chain appears between my cuffed wrists, connecting to each other as he grabs hold of it and turns, dragging me behind him roughly.
“What do you mean healer? Is he okay?” I stumble over my feet, still weak from whatever that mist was, and the metal infused within the iron cuffs that is making me heal slowly. He ignores me as we walk down the stone hallway, and I look into the cells on either side of me, trying to see if any of my pack is inside, but there is no movement.”Where are we going?” He ignores me.
Darius opens a wooden door at the end and begins to climb the steps leading upwards as I nervously look around. Torches light the way, my bare feet scraping against the jagged stone steps until we reach the top and another door. Pulling me through it, we enter a courtyard of sorts. Smooth stone slabs guide us along a path with sand circles dotted around the area that look like fighting rings, dried blood mixing in with the lightness of the sand.
“Darius, listen to me, you have to help us get out of here.” I try to pull back, to get him to stop, but it’s useless. “I don’t know what happened in Eridian. I…I don’t understand how I’m a traitor or—”
Darius whirls around on me and grabs a hold of my chin, his fingers digging into the wound on my cheek. I hiss in pain. “Shut the fuck up, Rhea. I don’t have to help you with anything, I won’t help you with anything.” His fingers dig harder into my skin, and I wince. “I’ll happily break your jaw to keep your mouth shut after what you have done.” A breath leaves me as we stare at each other for a beat. I never thought he would physically hurt me. I have always felt strangely safe with him, but now, fear rattles through me at the look in his eyes, and I know he could be capable of it.
Please believe me that I’m not a traitor, that I don’t even know what’s going on, I plead with my eyes.
He turns and continues to drag me with him.
My stomach swirls with nausea as I look further in the direction he’s taking me and notice we’re inside the castle walls. They’re tall, a dark imposing form that sends dread through me. The darker stone gleams off the sunlight and I recognize the flags of the Highers that float from the top of the battlements from the books Edward has given me. A green and black symbol of the moon cycle above a howling wolf, twin daggers resting on either side of it. It’s the emblem of Wolvorn Castle, and a mockery of everything that the Highers are supposed to be.
I see guards around the area. Their armor is black with green straps compared to Darius’ red and gold. They stand to attention, weapons at the ready as they watch Darius pull me along behind him. One of them spits at my feet as he opens a side door to the castle, leading me down a cold, narrow hallway. The sun shines through the high arched windows as we pass them. He takes me down more hallways and up another set of stairs before we finally reach another door.
This door has two guards standing on either side of it. They nod to Darius, opening the door so we can step through. The slam of the door behind us echoes around the large space. Tapestries of battles line the walls of the large torch-filled, domed space. Intricate patterns embedded into the marble floor along with the Highers insignia as we walk forward to two huge, dark oak doors at the opposite end. Darius nods to the guards beside it, and my heartbeat pulses in my ears as they open them. The creak of the hinges rattles against my skull as they push the wood, opening up to what must be the great hall.
People fill the space. The scent of wolves, witches and others hitting me strongly after days of smelling the few same things in my cell. Even though my senses are weakened, the hall is so full of beings their scents assault me almost painfully. They turn when they see Darius and I enter, sneers on their faces as they make way for Darius to pass as I stumble along behind him, curling in on myself. The people surrounding us take their seats on the dark tiered benches that go at least fifteen stacks above me. Darius continues dragging me forward and then comes to a sudden stop. I collide with his back. I want nothing more than for him to shield me right now, enemy or not, but he pays no mind as he tugs the chain linking my hands and drags me forward forcefully until I’m in front of him.
A ragged breath leaves me at the sight of the chairs raised on a dais in a semicircle across from me. The chairs are elegant with green and black stitching against the pale seating pillows, with the largest one in the center curving high at the top with the Highers emblem hovering above it. Four hooded figures are lined below the dais steps facing us, their robes reaching the floor as their hands are clasped in front of them. A sound comes from a lower sunken level of the room before me, and my gaze lowers, following the few steps down with my eyes until I see Kade in the center to the right, and then Josh to the left. Their wrists are bound in chains that are connected to the floor between their feet, and I hold back the tears that want to escape. Josh turns his head to look over his shoulder, his gray eyes widening at the sight of me, full of worry.
One side of his face is covered in dried blood. He has a cut on his lip and temple with bruising on his jaw. His clothes from the day we were taken are filthy, mine faring no better. Kade on the other hand has clean pants and a t-shirt on, his hair clean from what I can see from the back of him as he hasn’t turned his head toward me like Josh has.
A hard shove at my back sends me down a couple of steps before a hand on the back of my neck grips me tightly, guiding me to the center to stand in between Kade and Josh. I look down at the chain attached to the floor beneath me and Darius picks it up, attaching it to the chain connecting my two wrists. I feel his eyes on me, but I don’t take mine off Kade. He’s looking straight ahead, looking to be deep within his own thoughts. A tug at my chain has my eyes snapping to Darius, his green eyes hard.
“Dar—” I cut my self off with the snarl on his face. It’s cruel, twisted. He turns and walks toward the steps that lead toward the hooded figures and then stands to the side of the dais. He turns and looks down at us as the people in the room finish taking their seats around the hall. They stop around the edges of the sunken floor we are standing in. The cloaked figures shuffle to the side as Leo, Damian, Zaide and Jarrod come forward and stand at the edge of the dais with Darius, who looks toward them briefly before he folds his arms, watching the three of us.
My eyes go to Josh, looking at his bruised and bloodied face as his now dull eyes nod off to the side, the tightening in his face showing his unease. I follow the direction and the breath whooshes from my lungs as I see the people I never, in my life, wanted to see again. Oh, Gods. Brown hair, brown eyes. Blond hair, blue eyes. My heart rate picks up as my eyes swing to Kade, panic rushing through me. I go to step toward him, trying to reach him, only for me to jolt back when the short chain restricts me from going any further.
“Kade,” I whisper, my voice trembling as I see him shake, his own fist clenching as he scrunches his eyes closed. “Kade, look at me. Just stay here with me. I’ll get you out of this okay,” I assure him, looking back over the people that haunt my memories and see their smug smiles and hostile glares.
I pause as I look them over, my own body beginning to tremble as I face some of my own monsters for the first time in eleven years. My Aunt Selena looks at Kade then back to me, her blue eyes lighting up as she folds her arms, a sadistic smile upon her lips. Uncle Paul stands next to her, the same tall and imposing figure I remember. His dark brown eyes flick to me before he turns his head to the side and starts talking. When my gaze moves to the male beside him, I stop breathing. Blue eyes so full of cruelty meet mine, and I can’t hold back the shiver wracking my body as I’m locked in the stare of my cousin, Patrick.
Runa whimpers inside of me, retreating into a corner as she sees who I’m seeing. The people that were supposed to protect me, but instead helped have me tormented and tortured for years, never allowing me to leave the room that I thought I would die in. Wanted to die in. They didn’t care that I was their blood, didn’t care that my screams of pain radiated through that room. Some even joined in, one in particular, wanting to be in good favor of those in power.
I eventually break his stare, looking over at my other cousins, Richard, Alister and Sophia, before my eyes land back on Aunt Selena. The way she’s looking at Kade, the way her eyes light up in delight and with a knowledge that I don’t know of threatens to cave my chest in.
“Darius.” I look up at him in panic, ignoring his warning to keep my mouth shut and shake my head. “Don’t do this, you’re making a mistake.” The room goes silent as I speak, but I don’t care who listens. I just keep my eyes on him. “We made a vow with the Gods as our witness,” I breathe, ignoring the scoff of people around the room at the mention of our Gods that they think have abandoned. My pulse pounds at Kade being in this room with these people. He can’t be here. “Don’t go back on it. You can’t, please.”
He stands there, unmoving, his bored stare leaving mine to look around the room. He ignores me, pretending I’m not even here, like I’m not right in front of him. His men grunt and scoff at my words, looking at the three of us with sneers upon their lips. They won’t hear me, none of them will.
“Kade, listen to me,” I rush out, as I turn to walk as close as the chain will allow me toward him, stretching as much as I can to be near him.
“You lied,” he says in a tone I have never heard from him before, and my body tenses. “You lied about everything. I don’t have to listen to anything you say. I won’t.“ He finally looks at me, betrayal and anger shining in his eyes as I shake my head at him. “You stole me. You stole me from my family, from a life I could have had with my pack, but you kept me in Eridian.” No, no, no, I try to tell him, but my throat has seized up, my mouth unable to make a sound. He remembers I took him from our old home? “You messed with my memories, hiding them from me, but I have them all back now. The ones you tried so hard to block out. My life would have been so much different if you hadn’t taken me away. I could have been with my mate, happily living the way I was supposed to, but instead, I was trapped in Eridian, my mate died and I had my memoires fucked with. You did that, and I will never forgive you for it. Never,” he spits so vehemently at me that I jolt.
I back up a step at his words, pain slicing through my soul and cracking me open. I blocked his memories because he was suffering from nightmares from when he was in their hands. I didn’t know what else to do. If he had his memories back, he would know what they did, what they all did. I look toward my blood family and see their heads lowered to hide their smiles at the words Kade just said. And it’s then I know… I know they’ve done something to him. They must have.
“Kaden,” Josh calls to him, but he just scoffs, looking around me to see him.
“You’re no better than her. You both took me away, and for what? To make sure my family suffered because you couldn’t handle my father becoming Alpha? I was just collateral damage for your fucking twisted minds. And then you help her unleash a curse on Vrohkaria? You’re both sick.”
“What?” I gasp. that’s not true. “What curse? No, Kade that’s not—”
Circular barriers suddenly appear around each of us separately, and I tense. The shimmering pale violet floats in waves around me before disappearing, but the barrier is still there confining us inside. A door to the right of the dais opens and more cloaked figures enter the hall, but instead of joining the other cloaked people, they walk up the steps of the dais. Maize follows behind them, her black hair elegantly up on the top of her head in a bun, smiling down at us before joining the Elites as the figures each take their seats. Darius still stands before the dais, his men near him, as new arrivals sit themselves in the empty seats.
The people around the room all bow their heads in respect, all but the Elites, whose stares mainly bore into mine. The cloaked figure in the center of the chairs then clears his throat and pulls down his hood. Dizziness overtakes me, and I sway on my feet, my fist gripping the chains attached to my wrists as hard as I can to keep me standing. My eyes freeze on the man in the center as he looks directly at me, the air disappearing, a bolder on my chest cracking me open. His eyes light up slightly before they roam over my body in satisfaction, making me want to peel the skin from my bones so he could never look at it again. He knows who I am. I swallow roughly, trying not to throw up as I hear his voice for the first time in so many years.
“Let’s begin the trial.”
