“What are you called, son?” the man asked.
“Finnlan, a guardian once of the house of Adettlyn, but no longer,” Finn replied.
Hearing him answer so formally like that, but also mentioning the rejection of his home, broke Kaeleigh’s heart. There was a moment of silence when the girls didn’t think the man would answer, and they wondered if something strange was going on. But then he replied.
“I have heard mention of your sentence long ago, but not since. Where have you been?” the older man asked.
Finn took a moment to decide how he should respond. “I have been in the mortal realm attempting at blending in to live what they call a ‘normal life.’” Kaeleigh didn’t miss the slight attitude he used in describing humans, which shocked her.
The man spoke again, drawing her out of the hurt and guilt she felt at having kept Finn with her all that time even though she didn’t have a freaking clue who he was. “Then why are you here now?” the man said, with a shocking amount of anger lacing his words.
Chel grabbed onto Kaeleigh’s arm. Finn gripped the bars like he wanted to tear them off the hinges, which he probably did. But he responded with an amount of self-control that made Kaeleigh proud. “It is not your concern as to why I am here now.” Finn turned from the bars, signaling he was finished with the conversation.
Kaeleigh wanted to know more about this man. She felt compelled to keep him talking. As she was trying to think of what to ask him next, she heard the man say, “Only I think it is,” his voice entangled with fear and, simultaneously, hope. It must have been the faintest whisper obviously not meant for anyone to hear—except that she could, but he didn’t know that.
Kaeleigh cleared her throat, trying to clear her head enough to figure out what he could mean. She had to find out as much as she could; something wasn’t right. Well, there was a lot that wasn’t right about all that was happening, but she had to start somewhere.
“There is something different about you, Kaeleigh,” the man interrupted her right as she was about to speak. “I can tell your friend is a new shifter even though it is beyond her age to begin shifting. There is something familiar in both your auras, but you are unique to this realm. Where are you from?”
Chel frowned, and Kaeleigh wasn’t sure whether it was because he could tell what she was or because he could tell she was new and somehow blocked from what should have been her rightful heritage. Kaeleigh opened her mouth to respond, but felt Finn’s grip on her elbow a little tighter than was comfortable. She glared at him, but he just shook his head. He didn’t want her to tell him too much, and even though it pissed her off that he was being a control freak, she knew he was trying to protect her, so she softened her expression and gave a slight nod. He let go but didn’t go far from her side, as though the old man was somehow going to be able to escape his prison and break into theirs to assault a teenage girl. Well, I guess I didn’t know much when it came to this world so who knew, maybe he could.
“We are from the mortal realm,” Kaeleigh answered him vaguely, but then kept talking, “We found ourselves led here with false expectations.” Her look at Finn said, “see I can be vague and mysterious too,” which just earned her a world-class eye roll, only making her smile.
“Hmm, interesting, but you need to work on your aversion skills,” he simply said then asked, “And what of your heritage?” At this question Kaeleigh stilled.
She decided that there was nothing wrong with the truth at this point. “I... I don’t really know much.” She took a deep breath. “I believe my mother to be dead.” She wasn’t sure she wanted to talk about her mother and her encounter with her so she left it sounding like she didn’t know much—which truly she didn’t know too much. “I know nothing of my father. I only recently met my grandfather, whom I didn’t know I had and I’m not even sure if he’s okay.”
For a moment there was an uncomfortable silence, but then the old man spoke. By the sound of strength in his voice now she wasn’t so sure he actually was an old man.
“Where is your grandfather? Why wouldn’t he be okay?”
“Careful, Kae.” This time it was Chel who whispered into her ear just as Finn was stepping forward about to say the same. He was surprised but gave Chel a nod of approval and stepped back.
Finn answered for her since she didn’t really know where Hunter had lived anyway. “We came here by way of the Dul Isteach and ran into some trouble as we were leaving and were not able to return to see if her grandfather remained safe.”
“I have friends in that township. What’s his name?”
“He was called Hunter.”
Kaeleigh frowned at Finn, surprised that he actually told him his name... and he wanted her to be careful what she said. Hunter may not be his real name, but others still may have heard of it.
“It has been awhile since I have heard that name. I know of him.” What he said and the strained way that he said it sounded like he knew more than just “of him” and was worried. “I do hope that he is safe and hidden away. These are dangerous times. Which brings me back to you. What brought you here? This is quite a ways from Adettlyn.”
Kaeleigh stepped up. “Basically it comes down to a bad choice. Maleina sent for me. I was sworn protection getting to her and I needed some answers and thought I might find some here in this place. Well, either she found out what she wanted to know or didn’t... I’m not real sure about that part of it yet, and apparently my protection ended when we arrived here. So that about sums it up.”
It was quiet for a few minutes before anyone spoke.
“What did she want from you?” their fellow prisoner asked so low and with an edge of possessiveness and anger. “You seem like nice young ones, perhaps naive but innocent in all this. Maleina is vile, caring nothing for anyone but herself and the power she believes to wield and the advancement of her reign,” which he scoffed at perhaps slightly more bitter than he meant to let on. “You should not be here. Any of you, but especially you, Kaeleigh.”
Kaeleigh looked to both her friends, who were both frowning in concern. What did this man know? “Why ‘especially’ me?” Kaeleigh asked of him.
It took longer for him to respond than she thought it should. He finally answered with a level voice, “I have a gift to sense things about people. It’s not specific, but I can tell there is something extremely special about you, Kaeleigh. I do not know to what extent but you have a strong aura of power about you in a very pure sense.”
No one spoke for a moment. Uncomfortable in the awkward silence, but unsure what to say, Kaeleigh spoke quietly, knowing everyone would still hear her. “I don’t know about that.” Shrugging, she continued, unsure but feeling the need to talk about it with someone that might have an idea of what she was talking about. “I feel something in me most times just residing within me just biding its time, but other times I feel this... this energy stirring, coming to life. It feels out of control, scary, and I don’t know what it means or what I am supposed to do with it, if anything. I’ve been looking for answers, trying to figure out who I am and where I came from, but mostly it seems I just end up with more questions,” she finished, frustrated, and sat her back against the stone wall near the barred door.
Chel came and sat beside her, placing her hand on top of Kaeleigh’s. Finn paced on the far side of the small enclosure, briefly glancing her way every so often. Kaeleigh still couldn’t figure him out since they’d been here. He was adding more confusion to the giant monkey sitting on her back and she decided she would just have to deal with his issues later.
“What do you fear would happen if you gave into the energy within you? If you truly embraced who you are and the power you possess, scary though it may be?” the man asked quietly.
Her voice strained from the lump forming in her throat, fighting back tears threatening to spill over, she simply answered, “That I would lose myself.”
Chel gripped her hand, trying to offer what little comfort she could impart, while Finn sto
pped his pacing to stare at Kaeleigh, bewildered, as though he suddenly didn’t know the person before him. About to say something, he was interrupted by the man across the row that was increasingly getting on his nerves, while at the same time an increasing sense of familiarity kept coming in and out of focus. He was so close to grasping at the mortal’s proverbial “straw” but when he would reach for it, it would frustratingly slip further away, adding to his agitation.
“Dear child, you fear the unknown with the possibility of losing yourself,” he began tentatively, “but what if you were to actually find yourself; the answers you seek being in the depth of your soul and written in the essence of who you are—who you’ve been and who you are to become.”
“He is preaching to this choir over here too!” Chel spouted.
Taking a deep breath, Kaeleigh whispered, “Maybe,” thinking on what their fellow prisoner had said with such wisdom and certainty that she couldn’t just refute it. There was truth in what he spoke and his conviction behind it; she could feel the rightness of it. But was she ready? Could she handle it?
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Daegan paced in his quarters. In front of the large second-story floor to ceiling windows, the wide-planked wooden floor hardly resembled its original glory as he had worn a path of agitation in the floorboards. He wrung his hands together, then threw them back down at his sides, shaking them out only to clench them and repeat the process over again.
Something was wrong inside him. He felt like he was being torn in two, his heart and his soul ripped from his mind and his will. His actions were on the edge. On one hand, he was weighing his options for the best outcome for everyone, including Kaeleigh. He couldn’t have gone against Maleina, no matter how much he wanted to, when Kaeleigh had revealed the state of the banquet room to all the guests. Daegan had been shocked, but it wasn’t the time. How could I have not seen beyond that glamour? For now, Kaeleigh, Chel, and Finn were probably safest—though not comfortable—away from Maleina. On the other hand, he couldn’t believe how his heart had just about rent from his own body when Kaeleigh saw all those images from the prison wall and then… to leave her there.
Even now, he could still feel the inner tug pulling him toward the deep prison of rock that had swallowed not only those he felt responsible for, but one that had been slowly chipping away at his emotional defenses. He walked to the window and placed his hands at either side of the three-foot opening, his body buzzing with excess energy and his muscles tight, coiled like a snake ready to spring. Squinting out into the night sky, he could see the path leading to the prison lit by the light of the two moons. Most nights, it was a soothing sight, but tonight it held no comfort.
Taking a deep breath, Daegan closed his eyes and hung his head, focusing on the calming energy that came naturally to him only to lose his grip on it as quickly as he found it. Hearing Chel plead for him not to leave them there, and to see Kaeleigh’s eyes pierce his own, and to hear her words—“I understand”—about undid him. It was wrong. They were innocents—well, perhaps not Finn, but still he didn’t deserve this.
Frustrated, he pushed off the wall and ran his fingers through his blackish-blue hair, tugging it away from his scalp, seeking relief of any kind even in the form of pain. What should I do? What would Hunter do? He hadn’t allowed himself to think about Hunter. His heart pinched at his mind’s betrayal. My fault. They all get taken away.
His energy suddenly jolted under his skin, moving to a specific point like a swarm of locusts, stopping at his shoulder to create a deep burn, only to continue moving into his head, unleashing a pressure accompanied by a pain so great he fell to his knees clutching his head. His body collapsed in on itself and he rolled to his side as his legs involuntarily curled up to his chest. Daegan’s body began seizing. He felt the darkness coming and almost hoped it would swallow him fast and send him into blissful oblivion. Then from his core he called out, “Kaeleigh.” His mind flashed with images of her. He could hear her voice. Feel her energy. Her touch and their kiss that shook him to his core. He felt himself pushing back against the tormenting pressure and pain that enslaved his body. Then suddenly his mind went black. There was a buzzing in his ears followed by deafening silence only to be interrupted by the one voice he did not want to hear at the moment.
“Daegan. Come to me now.” Maleina.
Released from her magic that bound him, his body relaxed. He held still with his eyes closed, lying on the hardwood floor and fighting back the traitorous tears that had escaped his eyes. Daegan took slow, steady breaths, allowing his soothing magic to move through his body. As he pulled himself up off the floor and onto the bed, he looked to the window and watched as an orchid floated in through an open window and landed next to him where he sat. The softest words uttered collectively by a chorus of voices were ushered in on the wind with the flower.
“Fight. Stand up and fight. You were made for more than this.”
Daegan took a deep breath. He walked again to the window as if he could see her. Kaeleigh. But what he saw for maybe the first time in his life was clarity. Daegan felt a peace that began in his chest and radiated warmth throughout his body. He closed his eyes and simply felt… felt his energy—his magic—weave in and out and around his being. The more it moved, the more it grew in strength and hummed, igniting all of him with purpose. His eyes flashed open, the fire within in them blazing. Standing up straight and strapping on his sword, he stormed out of his room.
⚔⚔⚔
Daegan violently threw open the doors to the throne room, practically ripping them off their hinges. He knew Maleina was waiting for him. He strode straight to the opposite end of the long, narrow room where she sat unconcerned on her throne. She wore an attempt at passivity on her face while she watched him close in on her.
“What have you done, Daegan?” Her voice sounded almost bored yet her eyes snapped up to his. “You see, you can’t fight me. Oh, you may try and use every ounce of strength that thinking of that little witch might give you, but you won’t win.”
“Maleina, release the prisoners,” Daegan growled out. “They do not deserve to be there simply because you feel threatened.”
Daegan gripped his left shoulder where pricks of pain began stabbing him.
“I see you understand our little bond,” she said.
Daegan’s eyes narrowed. His fists clenched at his sides.
Her eyes, now malicious, searched his face as she sneered, “Well, maybe not completely.” Maleina’s voice began to grow sharp and bitter.
“What are you speaking of?”
She wagged her finger at him as if scolding a small child. “Tsk, tsk. You should know by now that I hold all the cards. I pull the strings.” Maleina got up slowly from her throne and stalked toward him, eyeing him like prey. She circled around him, taunting him with her control of the situation.
She got right in his face, almost level with him due to the height of her heeled shoes, and ran one of her pointy red fingernails under his chin then over to encircle the marking that now burned on his bicep. Her eyes never left his. “Maybe you are not yet aware that I can enter your mind at almost any given moment and take over… not only to control, but to see what you saw, to hear what you heard, and to know where you were.” She stared into his eyes intently and smugly as the revelation of what she said settled on him.
Daegan’s face paled. He felt his body start to shake.
“That’s right… because of you, we found—Hunter, I think you called him—you led us right to and through his wards. I have been searching for him for a long time,” she taunted him, then turned to step closer to the platform that held up her throne.
It is my fault. A pain—raw and deep—sliced through his chest. Arms clenched out to the sides, back arched and head thrown back in fury and defeat, he screamed out, “AGGHHH!!” Daegan fell to his knees. “Why have you done this?”
“I WANT THE POWER! I want that undeserving little girl’s power. I want yours, but most of
all I want hers—she sits hiding away in her cavernous refuge dictating my steps, but only for now… my time is coming!” Maleina spat out in anger.
Daegan didn’t know all that she was talking about, but he had to get out of there. He had to free Kaeleigh before Maleina did something he couldn’t undo. He turned, beginning to storm out of the throne room, when there was a “CRACK.” The whip of her power lashed out and struck him in his shoulder, bringing him to an immediate halt. Daegan’s face was a mask of rage as he turned back to her, his own power surging within his core like he had never unleashed before, the pressure of it building up so extreme, he felt he might explode.
Maleina felt it and there was the briefest hint of fear in her eyes when she realized he could grow his power like that. Then she sneered and let loose a dark, evil sound from her throat. Her image shifted, her glamour wavering. Not as surprised by it this time, he aimed for her head, prepared to let loose his pent-up magical energy at the snakes that now slithered about her body, encircling her neck and arms and even moving under her dress around her legs. It was evil and grotesque as she appeared suddenly intoxicated by the rush of power it gave her and she breathed it in, igniting a fire in her eyes.
“Where do you think you’re going? I will always find you.” Again she laughed. And though she stood still, he could feel her filthy energy, the dark magic, that emanated from her as it tried to wind its way around him. “What about your loyalties, Daegan? And poor, spineless Halister? You would leave him here without his sworn protector? You don’t want his blood on your head too, do you?”
Daegan froze. He could hear the threat to her own son in her voice. Maleina walked up slowly behind him, brushing her fingers down his each side of his shoulders, and stopping with her left hand on his marking, she whispered, “Don’t ever forget who holds your leash. You can hate me but you will never be rid of me. Not now and not ever.” She smirked. “I know how weak you really are.”
Veiled Shadows (The Age of Alandria: Book Two) Page 22
