I lift my chin as the guard’s voice cuts out.
“Lord Dyre will have me removed from my post if I allow you to be with her.” His focused gaze on me steels. I see the resolve written on his face as clear as the sky outside, the determination to do his job with honor.
“I see.” The clipped tone from Lord Velroy echoes in the entrance of the dungeon.
Before I can wrap my mind around what is happening, blood trickles from the guard’s nose. Deep, stricken fear slicks down my spine. The guard falls to his knees in a choked gasp, wine—colored tears spilling onto the floor, not even an arm’s length away from me.
The look in the young man’s eyes screams at me to run, but my body is frozen. My head snaps to Lord Velroy, and I can’t quit looking at the perverted twist of his lips. Eyes falling to where a weapon should be in his hands, but isn’t, confuses me and adds to my muddling thoughts.
“What did you do?” I’m startled by the words, disbelief in the fact I uttered them, my body feeling detached. As if I’m watching a carriage crash in slow motion, unable to stop it, forced to watch.
“Of course you wouldn’t know what to call my magic. I hide it very,verywell. Usually I only share it with those who are quick to pass into the veil.” His words sound like poison mixed with perversion.
Except what he doesn’t know is that I have met some of his kind before. Someone who can impale the mind by their will alone, causing permanent damage and death. Not a true rarity, but rather a magic most refuse to use, or rather refuse learning to harness. To find someone so cruel with their magic without remorse is unexpected. It goes against every fiber of my being. Indifference to others' agony and torment is inhuman and a lack of empathy that resides only in our most primal animals.
“You’re a Melder.” My voice feels small.
The guard’s body crashes to my feet, his eyes rolled back to reveal the bloody whites.
Lord Velroy turns to me and I see a shacked collar in his grasp.
Fuck this.I am not about to let him take me anywhere.
I scream as loud as my hoarse voice allows, until it cracks. Nothing. No answer. The sinister silence in the air hangs over my head, foreboding in its quietness.
Using my feet, I slam the door into the unprepared body of Lord Velroy and throw the lantern at him. He stumbles back, off balance as I scramble off the dirty floor.
The hot surge of adrenaline has my feet peeling around the corner of the door and jumping over Lord Velroy, his arms reaching up to try and grab my foot.
Relief floods me as I clear the space and jolt down a short hallway that opens to a small courtyard surrounded by wrought iron fencing and dying trees. The sunlight burns in my vision, my eyes slow to adjust. I don’t slow my stride until I feel the crunch of fallen leaves under foot.
The barren orchard trees are a welcome, yet confusing, sight. I don’t recognize the landscape but assume it must be in close proximity to Astoria. The clean air is a blessed reprieve from the stale air of the dungeon as fallen leaves marry with a chilled wind.
My chest clenches as I hear Lord Velroy shuffling to his feet in the dungeon. The sun is hidden by dark storm clouds that grow in mass by the second. As the air around me grows heavy and dense with electric current, I try to plan my escape while scouring the treeline for an easy exit.
With my skin prickling from the sudden change in weather, I chance a look behind me. The bastard holds the back of his head, but the look he is giving me has my scalp pebbling with goose bumps. His eyes appear devoid of life, promising avengeance I’m not sure I would want to survive. The tingling of fear wriggles from my head to my toes. After hearing more than a few stories about how he was a brute to women, and the way he’s glaring at me, confirms the horrific tales.
My boots twist with me, the leather squeaking as I break into a sprint. I don’t give myself a moment to think about what would happen if he catches me.
Uneven ground throws my pace off, the only thing worse than the man on my heels would be if I twisted an ankle. I race through the clearing in front of me and find myself edging toward an outcropping of trees. Their blue green branches greet me as I push through the large bows. Needles slap across my arms the farther I venture in.
It hasn’t been more than a few minutes since I escaped but weariness eats at my muscles. The adrenaline I once had is snuffed out like a flame starved for oxygen.
Straight ahead is a large tree, the width of the base promising me refuge. Moving toward the evergreen, I notice the soft bell flowers of my childhood growing near the massive trunk, beckoning me further. Perhaps this is a sign from Hanin.
The faint scent of the blooms has tears welling up.I’m just so damn exhausted.Awkwardly crashing to the padded earth, I suck in greedy breaths. My lungs are aflame and my body is screaming at me. Unsure if it’s from panic, terror, or just the brazen awareness that I am still very much in danger, I palm my eyes in an effort to focus and try to silence the heavy clang of my heartbeat.
This all feels wrong. Not just because we were tricked, more than that, I’m worried for Caym. Worried for Lees and frustrated I’m in this predicament of cat and mouse.
I lean against a tree and practice short breaths, counting my inhales and exhales. It takes longer than I’d like but I’mfinally able to level my breathing and focus on the forest sounds. Squirrels chitter to one another in the trees nearest me.
I raise my eyes to the canopy above and watch the dust settle through the mosaic light that filters through the branches. If I wasn’t currently hiding, this place would actually be peaceful. The reality is though that it isn’t, it’s just a temporary limbo I find myself in.
My brain fights itself trying to get a bearing of where I’m at. I’d studied the maps, looked thoroughly through them and attempted to memorize as many as possible just for a moment like this, no matter if I thought it a small possibility.
Resting with the sturdy trunk against my back, I scour the nearby landscape. I need to get back to wherever Leeson is. My best bet is to follow the Miener River and escape until I can find my bearings. With a jolt so sudden I worry I’ve been hit by lightning, I crumble to my side on the forest floor. Pain radiates from my head in pulsing waves, sucking me under and causing me to lose my vision. My limbs curl inward, my wrist threatening to break from the cruel tension coursing through me.
My world tilts and my vision is lost as my cheek presses into the cool earth. My body feels like a sack of stones, helpless to flee or fight off whatever this is.
