my breathing labored as I’m being moved, lifted harshly on to something, but I still don’t make a sound. My clothes are wet, the smell of blood all around me, soaked into my clothing and my skin. Voices sounding like they’re underwater reach me as my head lulls to the side. Fingers are on my neck next, a growl, voices getting louder and then cold air hits me. I’m jostled as we move, blood rushing to my head as a shoulder digs into my stomach, my arms hanging loosely below me. I feel liquid trickle off my fingertips, and I imagine a trail of red splashes following us as we start going down steps. My eyes open slightly, seeing the stone before me before they blur again.
A pained breath comes from me when my body hits the cold ground, my head bouncing off the hard surface. Pain shoots through my skull. A whimper comes from me at the rattle of chains jangling, then my body is being moved again and my wrists are being pulled and then dropped. A sharp kick in my ribs follows, knocking me over onto my torn back, a scream catching in my throat until the air stills around me.
No sounds. No movement. I’m alone.
I blink my eyes open slowly, not moving as sobs wrack my body. The taste of copper comes next as it fills my mouth, and I hold back a gag at the taste. I inhale shallow breaths, feeling the pains in my body. Wrists, ribs, back. Definitely my fucking back. I stay still for a long time, not daring to move as I stare at the ceiling. Drops of water slip through the cracks of the stone, and I watch them in fascination as they drop down, escaping from being trapped within. Eventually I realize that being on my back is just causing me more pain, and I squeeze my eyes shut to gather some strength.
I roll slowly onto my stomach, silently screaming into my arm as I feel the skin split more as it’s stretched, fresh blood trickling from the wounds. Gods that fucking hurts. I pant heavy breaths, fingers digging into the ground as I ready myself to get to my knees, sweat beading on the back of my neck. Another wheezing breath, and I get my chained hands under my face before I push off the ground, moving myself back until I have my knees under me. Bile rises in my throat from the pain, and I can’t help it. I throw up what little I had in me as I gasp through it.
When there is nothing left, I bring my shaking hands to my mouth and wipe, getting ready to move my abused body again. More breaths and more silent screams later, I’m finally on my haunches, my vision coming and going, and I grip my thighs to steady myself, scrunching my eyes shut until it passes.
Opening my eyes and seeing the stone stained red beneath me, I follow all streaks of it to the bars of my cell. I definitely got dragged in here then. I sigh, then grimace at the burning pain from my back as I shuffle on my knees, moving to the center of the room and away from where I’ve just gotten rid of the contents of my stomach. I carefully peel my torn t-shirt from the front of my body, whimpering in pain. The blood soaked material sticks to my skin, and I slowly drag it down my arms. I throw it off to the side the best I can, the wet slap against the floor telling just how much blood it has absorbed. Streaks of red decorate me, my white bra now a bright red as I look myself over. I can see bruising on my ribs appearing through the lighter streaks, and I know whoever kicked me had decent sized feet.
I don’t remember much after the thirty-eighth lash against my back. My vision was blacking out so I must have passed out from the pain or blood loss. I remember it felt like a whip of fire searing at my back, but I didn’t make a sound again, just like I promised myself. They didn’t deserve to hear my pain, and the fact that Darius is the cause of that pain made my resolve harden further.
The connection I thought I had with him was wrong. All the times we were locked in each other’s gazes, seeing more than we thought possible of each other every single time.
We were both wrong in what we saw.
I thought I saw good in him that I could claw out, he only saw the bad in me.
I wonder where they took Kade? Is he with his mom and dad? Is Josh with the rest of my pack back in a cell somewhere like I am? I look across from me and see no movement again. Where are they if they aren’t down here?
I gently rest my hands on my thighs, my skin feeling hot as I try to relax my body the best I can with the feeling of lava racing up and down my back. I close my eyes and check on Runa. She’s sleeping, just as exhausted as I am. I rest along with her, try to take my mind elsewhere and find some sort of peace.
I don’t think I will ever have it permanently, only snippets here and there. In the last twenty-one years, I could count the number of times I felt true peace on my hands. It’s depressing to think how little I have felt that way.
Have the Gods really abandoned us? I think this is the first time I truly feel like they have, even if everything within me recoils at the thought.
It feels like hours before I hear a scuffle sound from in front of me, and when I open my eyes again and toward the bars, a face I haven’t seen in a very long time is looking back with distraught eyes. He’s aged slowly over the years, but he still looks very much like the man I met all those years ago. His midnight eyes look over at me, concern written on his face as he grips the bars in front of him tightly.
“Rhea,” he breathes, and I hold back a sob at the sorrow in it. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t here. I didn’t know there was even a trial until it was too late.” He shakes his blond head, bowing it as he speaks low. “This should have never happened.”
“It’s not your fault, Edward,” I assure him, because it isn’t. He’s done nothing but protect me. “This was always going to happen at some point. We both knew that.” It was inevitable.
“Are you okay?” he asks, sighing as he looks over at the state of me.
A hollow laugh leaves me. “I’ve been better.” I rub a hand down my face, trying to ignore the flakes of dried blood coming off it. “Have you seen anyone else?” He shakes his head. “I need you to get Kade and my pack out of here. Can you do that?”
“I’m not sure, Rhea. The other Highers have been having meetings without me, excluding me from important business and sending me on useless trips to other towns and villages. I don’t know what’s going on lately, but I sense nothing good from it.”
“You have to try. They said they saw me perform a ritual to bring the rogures to Vrohkaria. How is that possible?” I don’t even know of any rituals that would bring chaos to the lands.
“I don’t know. Memory stones cannot be altered, but it must be possible. I haven’t heard of it ever happening before, I will have to search in the library, see if I can find anything in the old tomes.”
“Do you believe I did it,” I whisper, my voice shaky.
Edwards goes to his knees, uncaring that his smart black pants will be dirty as his hands still grip the bars, his eyes hold mine. “Gods no, Rhea. You would never do such a thing.”
My lip trembles at his unwavering faith in me, and I want nothing more than to go to him and seek the comfort that I know he would offer me. Just to have someone hold me for a second.
“Kade said his memories returned, but I think they have also altered them, Edward. He wasn’t making any sense.” I sniffle and wipe under my nose, pretending I don’t hear the chains rattle. “Who is powerful enough to do that? It took you years to produce the memory stone that blocked Kade’s memories from what happened with the Aragnis pack. How do they have enough power to bring them back, but also to change them?”
“Lord Higher Charles holds the most power. He could do something like that with a high-level witch. All of our powerful witches haven’t been at the castle for a few weeks though. Lord Higher Charles sent them off to collect something for him. He didn’t tell me what.” His face holds frustration as his hands squeeze against the bars.
“So, Charles got to him then, but why? What does he benefit from messing with Kade’s memories?”
“Seeing you suffer,” he murmurs, his eyes dropping at his own words. “He thought you were dead for a long time, Rhea. He’s going to make you suffer for escaping him in any way he can.” His hands release the bars, and he runs them through his hair, sighing.
“How powerful is he, really?” I know his dominance is strong. I know what he can do with his hands and some magic. But how does he hold the position of Lord Higher.
“He is a wolf and more,” Edward says, and I tilt my head. “He has power that no one has seen and can use it as he sees fit. I was told of the barrier you were surrounded by in the great hall. That is part of his power.” I swallow, memories flashing through my mind of the pain it caused me from touching it. “He can do more than that, and no one knows why. Some say he’s the new God, after the old ones abandoned the lands, their names and Heirs are ash in the mouths of anyone whispering about them, and never in kindness.” He looks up at me quickly before looking away again.
“What is it?” There’s something on his mind but he won’t tell me.
“Rhea…” he trails off.
“If I need to know, Edward, then I need to know. No matter how much you don’t want to tell me.”
He sits down, crossing his legs as he leans his forehead against the bars, a look of defeat spreading across his face. “Charles has been searching for someone like you since you left and couldn’t be found.” I blink, my brows furrowing. “He’s been going from pack to pack, trying to find others that might be… suitable.”
“What do you mean,” I whisper, dreading his answer.
“He’s been training up young pups until they are old enough to see if they show any similar signs,” he tells me regretfully, and I choke on a sound, shaking my head at what he’s telling me. “I can’t prove it, he covers his tracks well, but I know he’s been doing it. I can’t stop it.”
“Why haven’t you told me this before, I thought it was just me he did that to,” I wheeze.
“What would it change? We are powerless. There is only you and I, and that is not enough. He keeps an eye on packs, looking for pups soon to be born and then goes to them when they have arrived under the facade that he’s blessing them. Welcoming them into Vrohkaria. When really he’s looking for anything that resembles you. With you being thought dead and no others found, he thought he could find a way.” He swallows roughly. “He takes the ones he has a liking to from their homes and trains them. Prepares them for their new life,” he whispers, voice shaking as he speaks.
My eyes are wide as I open and close my mouth, shock rendering me speechless for a moment. “I’ve been hidden in Eridian all this time, hiding from the Highers and my family, and all this time.” I gag. “All this time he’s been doing that to others.” I hunch over at his nod, ignoring the pain in my back as I choke on nothing. “He’s been taking children because I wasn’t around. Training them. Oh, Gods. No.”
My palms hit the wet floor, tears dripping down my face as my stomach turns. What has he put children through? How many have died because of me? Children. He’s been taking fucking children when I was playing happy families in Eridian.
What have I done?
“It’s not your fault, Rhea.” He tries to placate me, but he’s wrong. So, fucking wrong. “You had to stay hidden from him. We couldn’t let him have you.”
“Children, Edward,” I cry. “He’s doing what he did to me. I thought with me gone, he would stop. That he would just give up trying to be more than he should be.”
“I know,” he says sadly. Nothing more to add because what can he say? Either way you look at it, Gods knows how many children have been put in my place because I was hidden away.
Is my life worth all of theirs?
“I will try and get Kade and your pack out of here, though I’m afraid it’s not looking good. Just hang tight, we will figure it out. You can’t be left in their grasp. Charles and the other Highers are determining your sentencing soon and many demand it be public, so he can’t do anything right now. That gives us time to come up with something. I can’t stay, or they will notice my absence. I will try and be back before they come and get you.”
I shake my head, so utterly defeated before lifting it to look at him with my blurry vision. “Just get them out, vallier, Edward,” Please.
He nods, his eyes solemn. “Don’t lose hope,” he pleads with me. “I will find a way.” He gives me one more small smile before leaving me alone in my new prison.
But all I feel is my soul crippling inside me. Sorrow at how much innocent blood has been spilled in my absence from so many young pups.
There is no hope for the essence that’s being tainted by the Highers.
No Gods.
No justice.
Only destruction and blood. That’s all that’s left.
