“You don’t remember?” The worry coloring her words as she stood and placed down the journal, gave me cause for pause.
“Should I remember?”
“Yes, you should,” she insisted, her alarm becoming palpable. “Raithian attacked you somehow, when we were…”
“Raithian attacked you…”Her voice echoed all around me, finally jolting my consciousness.
The Warlock King flashed in my mind’s eye, pointing his glowing green staff at me while his face distorted with fury. A raging ball of energy shot towards me, crashing against my chest, and blowing me back. Fiery green veins spread along my skin like magical poison until my entire torso was engulfed by the pain.
I jumped off the bed, my hands frantically searching for the injury. “Impossible,” I panted, finding my chest unblemished.
“It happened,” my mentor assured. “Tharion and the other Dragons healed you, but you were in really bad shape before the princess asked them to help you. Tharion took her to the caves with you.”
“I… um.” I couldn’t speak. Images whirled within my mind too quickly, out of order, and without context. I didn’t seem to be able to focus. “How did it start?”
Imogen’s concern increased, mixing with pain while she looked at me like she feared I had suffered more damage than they realized.
“We were walking out of the room to return to the party, when an invisible strike wrenched you from my side,” Evie answered, sitting up on the bed. “It happened over and over…” She shook her head, distress marrying her delicate features. “I have never seen anything like it, Braxton. It was terrifying.”
“You went after him?!”Raithian’s unhindered rage echoed in my mind suddenly, and a fireball formed in his hands, its glow dancing around the dark and humid cavern. “Do you think he’ll save you from me, you wretched monster?! He wouldn’t want you even if I gave you to him!!”
His consequential hit became so real, blowing me against the back wall, its force splitting the scales that protect my skin. A pain-filled roar reverberated through the cavern.
“You will pay for this, you disgusting beast. No one defies me!”
My heart began to slam against my ribs when one by one the memories became alive for me, perfectly fitting together like disturbing puzzle pieces. Not just from last night, but from my childhood too.
The Warlock King’s ire sent attack after attack into me, relentlessly, mercilessly.
Except…
“He wasn’t attacking me,” I panted, pressing my back to the wall while vines of chilling truth wrapped around my limbs, taking my strength away.
Every restless night. Every agony-drenched roar. Every fearful whimper. Every painfully writhing moment on the ground, over the blood seeping from my wounds played crystal clear before my eyes.
The jagged walls of a black obsidian cavern partially replaced my reality, for what now seemed like the millionth time. I had seen that place before, and the chains that cut through my leathery skin, rattling against the floors. I’d seen the bolts that screwed my shackles to the walls, stealing my freedom, denying my will. I had been there as a child so many terrifying nights. Even the day I was robbed of all sight in the coffee shop and had to hide in the bathroom.
Yes, I had been in that cave before… That cave was my home.
No. It was my prison.
Struggling to breathe from the revelations, my back slowly slid along the wall until my ass hit the floor, making Evie and Imogen rush to my side. And yet, I couldn’t really see them. All I saw was the image of the Warlock King marching towards me while conjuring his supreme and evil power.
“You will pay for this!”he raged again. “You will never seek him again, you disgusting creature. Do you hear me? NEVER!”
One after the other, his energy blasts made my massive body convulse until I whimpered in agonizing pain. His hate struck my being without mercy, and one of my heads snapped to the side. The chains that took away my freedom slashed into my face, drawing more blood.
My unsteady hand lifted to my chest, my mind conjuring a glimpse of the bruises that had spread over me last night. Older memories of pain overlapped with these, vanishing just as fast. I’d seen those bruises and wounds on me before; I had felt them all.
“Braxton!” Evie’s desperate call snapped me back to the present, to find her rooted by fear in front of me.
“It wasn’t me he was attacking,” I whispered, my eyes boring into her while everything else disappeared. All except the truth.
“If not you… then who?” Imogen asked, perplexed.
My attention shifted to her. “Azazel. He was torturing him, but I felt it all.”
Shock robbed them of breath, and they glanced at each other.
