I stood there, watching as he motioned for his men to return back to the Capital. Something wasn’t right. Seth called Amun a liar. After that, his men paralyzed him so he couldn’t speak. And Amun said Zane’s small group of men retreated. None of Zane’s army retreated. Ever. They were trained to fight till the death. That was what made them so lethal. That was why we always had highly trained guards on the boundary. Witches watched over the force field which protected Sector Twelve from ravagers, and the guards looked after the line separating the sector. It had been that way since Zane split the sector. And his men never fell back. For anything. Did Amun and the army kill them, or was Tiahna hiding something from me?
Whatever the case, I needed some answers. And I refused to rest until I got them.
Chapter 3
The Capital Temple always amazed me even though I had been coming here since I was a child. Stone columns which seemed to extend into the clouds, grand doorways with beautiful, ornate arches. Statues of our past Regents, and lush flower gardens lining the structure. Every time I walked up the stone stairs leading to the gigantic, double glass doors, my breath halted in my throat. Tonight was no different. Even in the glow from the torches surrounding it, the temple remained just as majestic as always.
I had finished climbing the last step when one of the Capital guards stepped in front of me. It didn’t surprise me. They were very protective over Tiahna. And they had every right to be. If we lost her, Sector Twelve would be in total chaos.
“Layna, you know the rules.” Ra blocked my entrance to the temple with his stocky build. “The Regent refuses to see anyone at night unless it is a dire emergency.”
“This is an emergency.” I gazed into his dark eyes. “A prisoner was brought here, and I feel it was a mistake. I need to speak with her immediately.”
“Come on, Layna.” Ra snickered. “That’s not an emergency, and you know it. This can wait till morning.”
To him it wasn’t an emergency, but to me it was. Now, telling him the ravagers broke through the force field would have him rushing me in to see Tiahna, but I couldn’t tell him any of that. I couldn’t disclose that to anyone right now until I figured out what exactly happened. “Please, Ra. Just let me in. I won’t be that long.”
He folded his arms over his chest. “Not a chance. Go home and come back in the morning.”
Ra always gave me a hard time over everything. Well…not always. There was a time he would do anything for me. Then I rejected his offer to court me. I wanted to be friends, and he kept pressuring me for more. Now we were one step below enemies. If I needed something, he’d do everything in his power to make sure I didn’t get it.
I drew in a deep breath through my nose and gritted my teeth. “Fine. I’ll be back tomorrow. And you will let me in.” I spun on my heels as he chuckled behind me. I had no intentions of going home right now. I would see Tiahna whether it was against the rules or not.
I made my way down the steps, but instead of going straight down the path as soon as I cleared the stairs, I ducked behind one of the huge, stone pillars. The darkness would be my veil. Continuing behind the small space between the temple and the statues, I hugged my body as close to the side of the temple as I could. Ra seemed to have forgotten I had grown up here. I knew every crack and crevice of this place. Including the secret entrance constructed long ago by the founding Regent of Sector Twelve.
After making it around to the south side of the building, I knelt down in front of a boulder underneath the wide kitchen window. Tiahna had this placed here when she became Regent, thinking nobody knew about the entrance. But she was wrong. My father had shown me a long time ago. We used to explore the tunnels under the temple quite frequently together. I sighed as I thought about him. But now was not the time to dwell on the past. I had a mission to attend to.
I grabbed onto the boulder with both hands and pulled as hard as I could. Its weight was too much for me. I couldn’t even make it budge. But I refused to give up. After several more attempts, it finally shifted enough to reveal the hole in the side of the stone wall. I lowered my body onto the ground, my bare stomach pushing against the sand, and slid in through the opening. The tunnel was pitch black.
I slowly stood up and traced my fingers over the damp wall until I located the torch which was placed here many years ago. With no source of creating fire, I’d have to use my magic. I only hoped it would go undetected. I waved my hand over the top of the torch. The light radiated down the dreary hall, revealing the numerous spider webs that had collected over the years.
Without hesitation, I rushed down the corridor, trying to remember which doors led to where. When I was with my father, we had the layout of the tunnel memorized. But all that seemed to fade over time.
The passageway twisted and turned until I finally decided to open the next door I came to. I couldn’t waste my time wandering aimlessly through this hall. A doorway came up on my left, and I stopped in front of it. I took a deep breath, blew out the torch, and placed my palms on the stone slab. “Here goes nothing.”
I pushed the door open and found myself in a small room with shelves covering the wall. Glancing around, I realized it was the storage room for the dry herbs. There had to be hundreds of jars with grass-like material on the shelves. I had gotten lucky. Tiahna’s sitting room was a couple of doors down. But would she still be there?
I slowly crept over the stone floor until I reached the door. Placing my hands on the wood, I carefully pushed it open, hoping there would be no servants or guards on the other side. This part of the temple was oddly quiet. The hallways were always occupied by someone.
I stepped out onto the red carpet. The material was soft under my feet. A huge relief since I’d been spending my day in the hot sand. Continuing down the hall, I located the door to Tiahna’s sitting room.
“I command you to stop!” a loud voice boomed down the hall.
I sucked in my breath and quickly swung my head around. A guard. Before he could even move, I pushed against the door and fell into Tiahna’s sacred room. Her sitting room was her place. A place where nobody would dare to enter. Except me, of course. And it was only because of my urgency to see her. Any other time I would respect her privacy.
“Layna,” Tiahna gasped my name.
I glanced up, and her normally bronze complexion was as white as the stone walls behind her.
“How did you escape…how did you get in here?” Her voice trembled, her words all over the place.
“What did you say?” I glared up at her. I could have sworn I heard her say escape before changing the sentence. Did she know about what happened earlier with the force field? How the ravagers made it into our sector? No, she couldn’t have known. I had to have heard her wrong.
“How did you get in here?” She corrected her posture in her red velvet chair so she was sitting perfectly straight. Her arms rested on the armrest, but her fingers were trembling slightly. The hem of her long white gown drifted over the floor, covering her feet. Gold necklaces, and the Regent medallion encircled her neck and rested just above her bust line.
“Tiahna, what are you up to? Amun captured a man in the oasis. He said he had escaped from the Cell. And that he is a part of Zane’s army. He also stated you were working on some sort of spell to erase memories. Who is he, why didn’t you tell me about him, and what in the Sixteen are you thinking about doing?”
“You know the rule,” she hissed through her teeth. “You refer to me as Regent. You will show me respect inside and outside of this temple.”
“Yes, Regent.” It took everything I had to hold back the words I really wanted to say.
“Regent, are you harmed?” The guard from earlier burst into the room. His cheeks were red and his breath rushed. His condition made me want to laugh. Some guard he was.
“No, but whoever let her in will pay dearly for this.” She narrowed her eyes in my direction. “Now to answer your question, I know nothing about a man in the oasis. As far as I know, Am
un has been on the temple grounds all day training the new recruits. And if he did happen to mention something about a spell, he was wrong. I will speak to him in the morning.”
“But, Tiahna—”
She lifted her hand in the air. “Silence!” Tiahna directed her attention to the guard. “See to it Layna finds her way out of the temple. As of right now she is breaking the rules. Not only has she forgotten my title and disrespected me, but since she is no longer at her post, she is out past curfew. If she fails to cooperate, throw her into the Holding Room for the remainder of the night.”
“No need for the escort.” Fire erupted inside of me. The Holding Room was only a step above the Cell. The only difference between the two was the Holding Room had a bed, a bathroom, and a sink. The Cell had nothing except a hole in the ground for prisoners to relieve themselves. “I know the way.” I turned and shoved past the guard. “By the way, you might want to fix your force field,” I said as I made my way into the hallway.
My bitch of a sister growled behind me. But that was okay. She was hiding something from me, and since she wouldn’t tell me, I’d have to find out for myself.
Chapter 4
Why was she keeping secrets from me? Did the council know about any of this? Seth…the force field? I could see her taking Seth if he was the trainer of Zane’s army. Yes, she would definitely do that if it meant beating him at his own game. But to erase this man’s memories. That wasn’t only insane, it was downright cruel. What if he had a family? And would creating such a potion work?
I opened the door and stepped into my Residence, slamming the door behind me. Living in the Residency never really bothered me until now. But the two bedroom box felt smaller than normal tonight.
Passing through the kitchen, I noticed dinner had already been placed on the table. Sliced apples, beans, and some sort of brown mush. The sight of it caused my stomach to heave. Eating wouldn’t be a good thing to do right now.
“Hey, you’re earlier than I expected.” Kesi almost collided with me in the doorway. “Is everything okay?” She lifted her brows and studied me with her big, brown eyes. “You look a little pale.”
“No, not at all.” I couldn’t lie to Kesi. Not only was she my best friend, but she was also my Residence mate. The only nice thing Tiahna had ever done for me. We weren’t allowed to choose Residence mates. They were chosen for us. Once we united with our life partners, we would be moved out of Residency and into Central Quarters so we could start our own families. Tiahna knew Kesi and I couldn’t stand to be away from one another, so she put us together. “I need to soak for a while.”
“Um…okay.” She shifted her body so I could pass by her. “Aren’t you supposed to be watching the force field?” she yelled over her shoulder.
“No, I’m not going back.” I stepped into the bathroom and closed the door.
As I drew a hot bath, I stripped out of the shorts and tank top I’d been wearing. I piled the clothes onto the floor and stepped into the steamy water. After I was situated, I leaned my head back on the edge of the tub and closed my eyes.
Blue. Ocean blue.
The man’s eyes appeared in my mind. They were just as vivid as they were earlier. “Seth,” I whispered his name under my breath. Who was he? What was he? And how could he affect me so much? I couldn’t stop thinking about him.
I opened my eyes and took a deep breath, gazing at the ceiling. There was no doubt about it, I had to see him. And I knew the perfect way to make that happen.
I quickly got out of the tub and dried off, knowing I didn’t have much time. Wrapping the towel around me, I hurried out the door and toward my room. “Kesi, I need to talk to you!” I continued into my room before she could respond.
She stepped into my room just as I finished dressing, which seemed amazingly fast to me, but I shrugged it off. Thinking it must’ve been my imagination. “You called?” She leaned her small frame against the side of the door.
“Yes.” I picked the comb up off my dresser and ran it through my hair. “I need to take your place this morning in the Cell.”
“What? No!” She lifted her body away from the door and ran her hand through her short, dark hair. “Not only could the both of us get in a lot of trouble, but everyone knows who you are, Layna. No, absolutely not.” She shook her head.
“Please, Kesi.” I dropped the comb on my dresser and walked toward her. “I would never risk you getting in trouble unless it was an emergency. I really need to get into the Cell.”
Her shoulders dropped as she looked at me. “What’s going on, Layna?”
“Ugh!” I spun away from her and I lifted my arms, placing my hands over my face. “It’s so complicated.” I paced around the room, knowing I should tell her everything that had happened tonight. Everything except about me using my powers. That secret had to remain hidden. But the ravagers, Seth, the words Amun said to me, Kesi had a right to know about that.
“Layna.” She was growing impatient.
I turned around. She had her hands on her hips, and her brown eyes were focused on mine. She was waiting. “Fine. When I was at the boundary tonight, the ravagers broke through the force field.”
“What?” Kesi gasped and her eyes widened. She leaned on the doorframe for support.
I held up my hand. “I’m not done yet. I managed to get ahead of them, but they tracked me down. I fell out of a tree, but before they could reach me, they disappeared.”
She now looked at me as if I’d grown a second head, but she didn’t say a word.
“I know. I know.” I lifted my hands in frustration. “I was a little freaked out too. But, after that, I went searching for them, and instead of them, I found a man.”
“A man?” She snorted. “Layna, there are many men in the Sector. What does this have to do with anything?”
“Well, remember the stories we heard about the blue-eyed man who trains Zane’s army?” I lifted my brows, knowing she had heard the tale many times. Resident’s always told the story to keep their children away from the line separating the sector. “The hunter, the savage, the man who would kill anyone, including children without a second thought.”
She slowly walked over to my bed and sat down. Something seemed different about her, but I wasn’t sure what. “Yeah, so. They were just stories.” She shrugged, deliberately focusing onto the floor, as if she were trying like hell to avoid me.
“No, Kesi.” I shook my head. “The man is real. That’s the man I saw. The man Amun and his army took back to the Cell. His name is Seth, and I need to see him.”
She took a deep breath and looked at me, her brown eyes consumed with worry. “If this man is indeed a savage, why in the Sixteen would you want to see him?” Her gaze shifted away from mine. Again. She had to be hiding something. But Kesi was my best friend, and there was no way she would hide something from me. She always told me everything.
“Kesi,” I brought my hands up and raked my fingers through my hair, “I don’t know. There’s just something about him. And when Amun accused him of leading a small group of Zane’s men over the boundary, the man called him a liar. Things just aren’t adding up. The ravagers breaking through, the man appearing. I need some answers. Tiahna was even acting weird. It was like she knew the ravagers came through. Also, when I asked her about the prisoner Amun had, she told me she knew nothing about it. She said Amun had been at the Regent Temple.”
“I don’t know.” Worry lines creased her forehead. “You may be the Regent’s sister, but if you go against the law, the council makes the final decisions. Your sister may be willing to show mercy on you, but will the council?”
“Screw the council.” I was so sick of it. The council, my sister, her army. If she knew the ravagers were getting in, why didn’t she stop them? What about all the Residents who depended on her to keep them safe? And if this man, whoever he was, could tell me anything at all, then I would risk going up against the council. All my sister seemed to care about lately was the war she had going
on with Zane. If she couldn’t protect the Residents in our half of the sector, how in the hell did she think she could manage Sector Twelve as a whole? “I don’t care what happens. I need to see him, and you’re the only one around here I trust enough to get me in.”
“Layna.” She directed her gaze at the ceiling this time. “You’re absolutely killing me here.” She took a long, deep breath and looked at me. “Fine. But you’re not going to take my place. We’re going to go together.” A spark seemed to ignite in her eyes. It was almost like she wanted me to go, but I couldn’t be sure. “I’ll sneak you down to the Cell, but after that, you’re on your own. I can only distract the others for so long, so you need to get in and get out as fast as you can.”
“Deal.” I smiled smugly, knowing she would help me.
She got up off my bed and walked toward the door. “We leave in five minutes,” she said over her shoulder as she disappeared from the room.
Chapter 5
Kesi walked swiftly through the darkened streets of the Residence. I followed a short distance behind her, wearing a black hooded cape like hers. That way if any of the guards happened to be out and about, I could quickly blend into the shadows.
By the time we made it to the Capital, the orange glow of the sun beamed across the sky, which worried me. The curfew would be lifting soon, and we still had a ways to go. Especially since the Cell was situated on the far side of the city, opposite of the Capital Temple. The Cell was a part of the old world, a world the ravagers consumed until almost everything was gone. When the first Regent, one of the original Sixteen, created our sector, she discovered the crumbling city ruins under the sand. She placed all the people down there who were a risk to our sector and the humans she had saved. Those people wanted to revert back to the old world instead of embracing Othala. What they didn’t realize was the Regent had saved them from the ravagers. She could have put them all outside the boundary, but she didn’t. But still, she knew she needed to be protected from them for the sake of her people. The only way to do that was to build the Capital Temple on the other side of the city.
Forbidden: an Adult Paranormal Witch Romance: Othala Witch Collection (Sector 12) Page 2
