by Bailey Dark
Calmly I open my eyes and watch as Kane steps forward, his body turning back into the man I know and love. His claws retract, his skin softens, and his eyes lighten. I let out a breath, and a chuckle escapes as I set my hand on my stomach. He wobbles forward, his right shoulder slumping as his knees shake. Blood trickles down the side of his face, and his knees give way sending him to the ground. With his descent, the flames extinguish, and the floors return to their slate gray coolness.
I hurry to his side and rub my hand across his forehead. His body is badly beaten and bruised. His back is torn in shreds, and he lays unmoving on the stone floor. I lean forward, pressing my head to his chest. His body is smoldering hot, but I can hear the one thing he always hides. It's the one thing that I try so hard to capture as my own. His heart. It beats with a ferocity, and I smile even sitting within the ashes and smoke, the battle still raging in the city, the debris from Kane's anger all around me. I have always known that Kane is a good man. I've always known that Kane truly cares and that his heart beats for more than just power.
There is a lot of work to do to get him back to where he was, but something in me tells me that this is the weakest I will ever see him again. Blood flows from his wounds, and his body lays completely exhausted from the trials and tortures he has experienced. But, he's alive, unconscious, but alive. That's all that matters to me right now. Everything else will be sorted out, but right now, I know I have not lost the man that I love. I know that when he awakens, we will fight together until Drogaem is no more.
Chapter 16
Kane
Rage.
Pure unadulterated rage flows through me, and I allow it to take complete control.
I lost something in the fire and flames, but I think it's something that I never needed in the first place. Seeing Briar standing there, the light radiating, her body twisting and morphing the energy astounds me. I have known for a long time that she is capable of more than she gives herself credit for, but I never imagined the power that is inside of her and all around her.
I know that I let her in long before I allowed myself to accept and admit it. There is a part of me that always searches for the words that truly encompass the range of emotion and feeling that Briar brings. Standing here, the flames crackling around me, the dust of my enemies in the air, I finally realize what Briar has been to me all along.
She is my light. She is the hope that I have never allowed myself to have. To be a good leader, a king, I thought my soul had to be resolute. I thought I had to come to terms with allowing death in order for peace to follow. But Briar's light shows me that it doesn't matter, I don't have to allow the people I protect to fall victim to the evil that lurks within the darkness of the underworld.
I wobble forward, wanting to tell her all of this. I need for Briar to understand the truth of her own strength and power, but my body is fighting me. My knees collapse, and I hit the stone ground. As I fall, the flames of my anger extinguish. My eyes begin to blur, and before my face slams into the stone, darkness takes me.
Where I go, though, dreams do not haunt me. It's not a darkness that holds me. It's not a void like the one Drogaem had locked me inside. It is just a space, a holding place until my body allows me to rise. I stay here, feeling a tranquil peace, wondering if this is where I end my story.
No. I will decide when my story ends.
My thoughts fall to Briar, and I close my eyes, forcing the calm away. Flashes of visions pop through my mind, taking me back to the flaming hall. I hear the shifter and the vampire writhing in their own pain and agony. The vision shifts to Briar's face. Just before the moment that I pass out, I open my eyes. Immediately my body goes tense, and pain shoots through me. It clouds my mind, and I swing my arms, not understanding whether I'm fighting or falling.
"Shhh…"
The sound of Briars's voice calms me almost instantly. My vision begins to clear again, and I see her beautiful face bent over me, smiling as she wipes a wet cloth across my forehead. I allow myself to be lost in her eyes for several moments, forgetting about everything that happened before. It's a private moment, an intimacy that I long to share with her far beyond my broken body and bloodied wings. Her stare is even more soothing than the darkness I came from.
Shouts and screams shake me from my trance, and my mind falls back on my people.
My people. They are suffering.
I pull away from Briar and force my body off of the bed, dragging myself toward the balcony. My knees shutter beneath me, and pain sears from my thighs to my stomach and over into my back. I grip on to the doorframe, just as my legs begin to give out. I hold on, but my fingers begin to slip.
"Whoa, hold on," Briar says as she runs up and puts her arm around my body, bracing me enough so that my legs can find their footing again.
She tries to pull me back, but I shake my head. "I want to see."
She stands here with me for several moments, but I can tell that my weight is beginning to be too much on her small frame. She grunts. "I'm proud of you. I'm proud of your desire to protect your kingdom and how far you will truly go to do it, but I can't let you destroy yourself in the process."
I know she's right, and I let her help me back over to the bed. I lay down with a groan, turning to my side to avoid the burning streaks of pain along my back. Briar kneels on the bed next to me and puts out her hands, the light almost instantly forming in her palms. She starts to heal me, and the soothing feeling of her magic takes my breath away.
Though the enemy is all around us, in this moment we’re alone. We have a small window of silence and peace, something we've needed for a long time.
As Briar runs her hands over the wounds on my back, she takes in a long deep breath. "I know that Willem may have risen against you, but he and his rebels haven't forgotten the people."
I look over my shoulder at her. "What do you mean?"
She nods toward the balcony. "He got my letter, and he and the rebels are in the city, protecting everyone that they can, fighting against Drogaem's soldiers."
I stare out the window at the smoke rising from the city below. My body begins to un-tense, feeling a peace knowing that my old friend, no matter how treacherous and defiant, is looking out for the people. Willem has a heart after all.
Briar finishes with my back and rolls me onto it, working her magic on the cuts across my chest and stomach. I watch her beautiful eyes as she focuses on me, the light almost so bright it blinds me. "I'm sorry. My search for more power got us into this mess. My feeling of helplessness in the face of what I've created myself turned me into a monster. Yet, there you were, standing for me, making sure that I was safe. I'm sorry that I ever got you into this. You deserve so much better."
Briar shakes her head as she continues to heal me. "Drogaem would have found a way to escape eventually. I know, and I can't explain why I know, but I just do know that I would've found you and Drogaem eventually. All of this was meant to happen. Between the goddess within me and the pull to you, I now know that I am meant to defeat Drogaem. But you have to understand. Soon the city will go quiet, and Drogaem's men will return to the castle. We cannot defeat them today. No matter how much we want to, we have to continue on. But this time we're going to come up with a plan, and we're going to do it as fast as we possibly can. We cannot wait for another attack on the city."
I reach up, pushing a piece of hair out of Briar's face. She looks different, bolder, more potent. And yet, within these sparkling eyes, I still see the girl that I brought to the underworld what feels like forever ago. That human innocence and hope that drives her. While it may frustrate me sometimes, that human part of her is what gave her the strength to muster the power to save me.
"We will defeat Drogaem," I tell her. "We will do it together. And if we fail, we will die together as well. But we cannot allow this canyon between us anymore. Separate, we are strong, but together we are capable of much more than I think you fully understand. I didn't even fully understand it until I stood in
flames, watching the orbs of light spiral around you. I will keep my temper at bay as much as I possibly can, but you must do the same thing as well. You have to remember that your powers aren't some random gift from an ancestor. They are part of you, and you are part of them, and you truly will be the light that saves us in this darkness."
Silence falls over us, but it's no longer a distant and cold silence. It's a contentment and understanding that we are finally starting to understand each other. That we are beginning to finally know each other on the level of intimacy that I've never had with anyone else. Our goals align, and she cares just as much about saving the kingdom as she does about saving the human realm. She's no longer an outsider. She's no longer the fragile little human that everyone found amusement in when I first brought her here.
Briar, on her own accord and with her own strength, has become one of us. She fights for us, she cares for us, and even though her mortal soul is still intact, she is no human. In my eyes, she is as much of a goddess as Lux was, and she will understand that by the time it's all done. All I need to do now though is come up with a plan to help us. She's right, we need to be swift. We need to catch Drogaem at his weakest point and exploit his inabilities. He's so strong, but I know that together, Briar and I are stronger.
Chapter 17
Briar
My ability to read Kane's movements is getting better. It's hard considering he's quite a bit faster than the average person, but if I know what move he's going to make before he does it, I know where to aim my magic. Of course, I'm not quite at a place where I can use my powers without fully concentrating on what I'm doing. It makes it hard to maneuver at the same time. Kane is trying to teach me tactical movements while still using my magic.
I stand facing him, an orb of light in each hand, watching every inch of his body. This alone is a bit difficult. I keep finding myself drifting off, basically drooling over his tight muscles and firm stance. At least three times, he's tackled me because my mind flutters off to several moments we've had together, the heat between us like a blazing fire. Each time it happens, Kane smirks, and I know he has an idea of where my mind is going.
"Anticipate my movements and shift and move before I make the step."
My cheeks puff as I blowout an exhausted breath. I shake out my shoulders and bend my knees, preparing myself to move at a moments notice. As my eyes trickle down his thighs, I see his right one tense. He's going to use it to push off of. Without thought, I shift to the left just as he takes off. Before I can get the orb of light from my hand, though, he barrels into me. His hands grip around my waist, and he lifts me in the air as he comes to a slow stop. Had he not been thinking about keeping me safe, he would've knocked me out.
He sets me gently on the floor, and I absorb the light back into me. Shaking my head, I groan, tilting my head back and letting my shoulders fall. "How many beings out there are as fast as you?"
"As fast as me?" There's a cocky smile on his face. "Probably none, though Willem would most likely argue that point with me. But there are a lot of creatures that are quicker than you."
"How am I supposed to battle something that I can't be equal with?"
Kane shakes his head. "It's not about being equal, it's about using your own strengths to overcome where you lack. Your power alone is a force up from most every creature in this realm, and the next."
Kane's eyes shift up at the door and then back down at me. He walks over and makes sure the lock is clicked. For a second, there's a flutter in my stomach, an excitement, but when he turns back, a thoughtful look on his face, my cheeks redden. My mind went somewhere completely different than his. I'm not going to lie, I was kind of hoping he was locking the door for a bit more personal time.
Pretending to smooth down my skirt, I look away to hide my red face. Kane doesn't seem to notice as he walks a circle around me and sits down in one of the chairs. He reaches out and pulls another closer to him, patting the seat. He's acting curious, and from the fact that he's not verbally letting me know what he's thinking yet, I can assume it has something to do with Drogaem.
I sit down on the edge of the seat and lean forward, almost touching my forehead to his. He begins to talk in a whisper. "I think you know that enough time has passed since the attack, nearly 4 days now, that we need to get ahold of Willem so that we can get aid from Aiden and Desona."
Just the sound of his mother's name sends chills up my back. I can remember the last time I saw her. I had such high hopes for a relationship with the Mother, one of the Three, a goddess known to the humans as kind and gentle. But those hopes were quickly smashed when I realized she had no interest in a friendship with a human. In fact, she went out of her way to push Lilith on to Kane. Nonetheless, she is one of the Three. Between her and Kane's brother, Aiden, who also wanted Kane dead at one point, they have the ability to bring an incredible aid to the kingdom.
"With Drogaem forgetting about us right now, I wonder if it would be possible for me to sneak out at night and go into the woods? With the eyes from the rebels, Willem would know I'm coming right away."
Kane shakes his head. "I think that's far too much of a risk. If you're caught going in, they could find the rebels. If you're caught coming out, you could be killed. We've reached a point where we need to keep you safe just as much as me. Were going to have to try to contact them through letters or messages. Unfortunately, I don't have any allies within the castle anymore. They've all left. The only creatures behind are either pure darkness or have allied themselves with Drogaem in some way or another."
My lips twist, and I glance over at the window. "I just don't think that it would be smart for us to use the same method of communication with Willem. First of all, Drogaem caught me out there, and secondly, Drogaem knows that the rebels fought in the city. There's no way he doesn't know. If he didn't see it himself, Gregore told him when he got back. He will be extra cautious about the rebels and be monitoring things very closely."
"Even if we chose a different place where I took them?"
"No," I reply. "That area is likely guarded, and wherever Willem is, it's not going to be a place that is easily accessible at this point. If we try, we could get both of us caught. I just don't think I can do what you're asking. I think it's too much of a risk."
Usually, Kane's demeanor would change. There would be an indignant attitude for being denied. It's not that way, though. He listens to me and nods his head, thinking about the things that I'm saying. He taps his teeth together, his eyes shifting around the room. "Then how do we get a message to them?"
We both sit back in our chairs, thinking about different options of contacting. Signals won't work, as anyone will be able to see them. Letters won't work as we have no way to get them to them. Kane doesn't hold the magic to move through realms freely, and I'm pretty sure that Drogaem has put some sort of spell over the castle to keep outside influence out.
"Back home, things don't move as fast as they do here. In the mortal realm, it takes us a very long time to get from one side of the land to the other. If we waited on normal hand carrying letters, things would never get done."
Kane furrows his brow and leans forward again. "So, how do you get messages back and forth?"
I stand up and walk over to the window, tapping my fingers to my lips. "We use pigeons."
He lifts an eyebrow. "You have pigeons take messages back and forth?"
I lick my lips, nodding my head. "We have a trainer for the birds, and there are certain birds that you send during certain seasons, so they know to fly the right direction. They are trained to go and come back. You have birds here like pigeons, I've seen them. They're sandy in color and about the same size. They have black beaks."
"They're called Soul Keepers," Kane replies, nodding his head. "They call them that because they're very friendly with the beings in the kingdom and very intelligent."
Biting the inside of my cheek, I stare out at the horizon. "Do you think if I use my magic to guide them, we can get one to fi
nd Willem and the rebels?"
Kane chuckles. "I've never thought about doing that, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. In fact, it's brilliant. They don't pay attention to the birds, why would they? You could send a message right in front of Drogaem, and he would never know."
I nod, feeling pride swell for coming up with something new, something that the others wouldn't have thought of. "I don't really think we have anything to lose. If it doesn't work, they just fly off far away from here, which is where we want the messages to go. And we can try as many times as we want. It may work on the first time or may not work at all, but at this point, we have to do something. We have to do something that keeps us out of harm's way. Our lives are already on the line every single day here at the castle.
Kane stands up and walks over to the window, wrapping his arms around my shoulders. "You're smart little human."
I glare up at him, smacking him with the back of my hand in his chest. He chuckles, and it feels nice. It feels normal, whatever normal is. Since the other day, we've made it a point to be patient with each other and to take moments when they're handed to us. I don't know if the bird idea will work. I don't know anything about the underworld creatures, or anything about using my magic to guide another being, but we have to try something. Time is running out, and if we don't move quickly, there will be no pushback when Drogaem goes to take over all of the realms.
There's a rattle on the door, followed by a loud knocking. Both of us tense. Kane takes a deep breath and walks across the room, opening up the door. One of Drogaem's soldiers stands, his hand on his sword, glaring into the room. "The King requires both of your attendance at dinner this evening. Be ready in one hour."
