He watched as the inky flames, twisting all around him, kissed and caressed his skin. Starting to sink into his pores, turning his veins black. Choking him, deafening him. He felt liquid burst from his tear ducts, black tears streaming down his face.
His screams echoed through the forest as the she giggled, lowering her sharpened teeth to his throat, making him submit to her will, her dark desires. He clawed at her, but the fire just raged, crawling into his mouth, his eyes, his nose. Suffocating him as he was turned to ash beneath her hold.
***
His screams tore from him, jarring him back to reality. Sweat clung to his skin, making his clothes sticky beneath his jacket. The tinges of dawn bled into the sky, making the forest around them seem innocent as the shadows were chased away.
Scrambling back, he clutched his heart, ripping at his clothes, tearing them so he could see, could check, that it had been just a dream. The cool air made his skin prickle when his chest was exposed. His skin was starkly pale with no trace of inky lines. Sighing, he held his head in his hands, trying to shake the nightmare.
“I thought you might have died.”
Adair snapped his attention to the figure looming over him. Marquis was pale in the morning light, dark shadows lining his piercing eyes. Slowly, he lowered himself, so he was eye-to-eye with him. Marquis’s voice was raw as he said, “A little warning might be welcome next time we go visit a creature of death.”
Adair raised an eyebrow at the young prince. His voice was scratchy when he said, “I thought you would relish in the life-threatening experience. Also, I did warn you.”
Marquis grinned wolfishly, extending his hand down to him. Adair grasped it, welcoming the help as his body protested from the movement. Bruises flowered his arms, the dried blood cracking from the old wound.
Sighing, he looked at Marquis skeptically. “How did you find me anyways? Gortach’s lair is almost impossible to pass through.”
Dusting off his jacket, the Prince of the Shattered Isles murmured, “It’s hard to say. A horrible wrenching gut feeling? That the golden room we started in started to turn into itself? It was like I was looking through a mirror once I found the crack, and I stepped into it. Turns out, it was a portal straight to you.”
Adair dusted himself off slowly. “And a good thing at that. Bleeding dark magic.”
Marquis lightly coughed under his breath, arching an eyebrow at him in anticipation.
“Yes, thank you for saving my life, oh noble Prince.”
Chortling, Marquis clapped his back. “That’s more like it. Anyways, did you find what you were looking for down there?”
Adair popped his collar up, shivering against the misty morning. He looked around at the empty forest, absentmindedly rubbing his chest. He could still feel the echoes of those black flames burning through him, through his core, and running through his veins.
“In a way.”
He started walking, his boots thudding wetly against the ground. Marquis was right beside him, chomping at the bit.
“I just saved your life, and you decide now is the time to be cryptic?”
Adair tiredly rubbed his eyes. “What? So you can report back to your father what I’m up to?”
Marquis squared his shoulders. “No. Because we just visited a hidden realm where creatures of ancient myths do exist, and I’m curious how exactly you found them and what is worth that kind of desperation.”
Walking in silence, Adair chewed his cheek. He glanced at the prince, who had buried his hands in his pockets, waiting patiently for him to answer. Would it be so bad to confide in someone? To have someone to confide in? Someone who would listen with no judgements, no pre-conceived notions of who he really was. Or who he had to be.
“I like to read. History is my passion.” Adair shrugged. “Look. All my life I have been groomed to become part of the Academy’s successors. Which means not having regular classes and having access to materials the Faes have brought in for their own personal use. I found this book, and well, I devoured every word.”
He frowned and Marquis motioned him to continue. “Is it so wrong to believe that there is more to the magic of this world? We are here, so why couldn’t these mythical creatures be as well? It took a lot of hunting and obviously exploring. I found the gateway a couple of years ago, by sheer luck. I haven’t told anyone, because who would listen? Who would believe me? I’m an outcast, with the ability to possess another person. Most students fear me, and their fear ensures I’m isolated. With the exception of Emory and Memphis.”
Marquis nodded. “It takes a dreamer to know a dreamer. You and I aren’t that different.”
Nodding, Adair whispered, “It was worth it. Gortach is a seer of sorts. It can see into the future of the question the person presents to it. I knew the Faes have been lying to us.”
Rubbing his hands together, Marquis was practically bouncing on his heels. “You do know that was our true intention for coming, right?”
Adair practically tripped over his own feet. Halting, he breathed, “What?”
“Stories travel fast to the Isles. Even though our trading routes have been cut off since Nei’s father, Briar, was ruling, word still got to us. We are rovers after all, and gathering secrets is like our oxygen.” Marquis grinned. “Anyways, my dad was curious about why Briar cut off the Shattered Isles from his oldest daughter. Before he was usurped and killed, it was found out that Roque was keeping some very dangerous secrets from prying eyes.
This time Adair motioned him to continue. “It’s not a coincidence that we are here, or that there have been horror stories of dark creatures ravaging Kiero. It’s true my dad is here to build an alliance with the Faes, but not before finding out the truth. We are buying time. Didn’t you ever wonder why I didn’t go with my group? I have been assigned the key role of finding out if Kiero is worth our alliance.”
Marquis beamed at him, and adrenaline coursed through Adair. He choked back his relief and a strangled laugh. “And what do you think so far?”
The prince stopped, looking at him dead in the eyes. “That, right now, that place is built on a warped dream, overrun with lies and deception. That the good intentions have been lost in translation. Your father is proof of that.”
A moment passed. Running his hand along his mouth, Adair started walking, weaving through the towering forest. Ice cut through his veins, vicious and unrelenting.
His father. The traitor.
The unhinged man who was never satisfied. Did he find what he looking for? That would make him feel fulfilled in his life? If he would make the world bow to his rage, would he look back and feel happy? Knowing that he had filled his years, breaking him with his anger and his violence. That he had left his best friends, forcing their world back into a split balance. To choose sides.
What side would he be on?
He was an outcast in the Academy. He was torn in his family. When the time came, where would his allegiances lie?
“Hey! Adair.” Marquis was practically chasing him, grabbing his shoulder and making him stop. “I didn’t mean anything by that. I’m sorry.”
Chewing his lip, Adair looked up at the sky, where the golden hues spread across the clouds like gold flecks, dusting and shaping the sky. His anger, his confusion, his hurt rushed up to him.
“Adair.”
With burning eyes, he snapped, “Look, it’s fine. I’m fine. Let’s just get back, okay? I have a lot to do.”
“Adair!” Marquis cried behind him.
He didn’t stop, didn’t turn back. This prince was just like everyone else, using him to get what he wanted. All this time, he was a fool, believing that maybe, just maybe, they had more in common than they had both thought.
He had no one. Emory turned to her family and now claimed her birthright - her father, making her choose. Adair was alone in this.
Roque feared him and his ability. He had been delusional to think that he ever had a place in the Academy. He had always been kept on a leash, ent
ertained because of Cesan’s relationship.
But now?
Now, it was time he accepted that his future was in his hands. And it started by finding out why Roque was hiding this so-called Book of Old. And why he needed access to the ancient power. Pulling his jacket closer, he nestled into the darkness curling around his heart and the echoes of those soft voices coursing through him.
“Yes. Yes. Yes.”
Marquis followed beside him, shooting glances every now and then out of the corner of his eyes. Adair never faltered, staring straight ahead and falling into his silence. With each passing second, with each footfall, his certainty grew into a concrete form, small at first, but then it exploded through him, sharp and consuming.
He knew where his alliances lay. He had always known it; he just wasn’t able to face his own truth. They lay with him. Not with the Academy. Or the Faes. Or his parents.
What were his best interests in a world that was being ripped apart by the politics of kings? The thought grew and grew, and as Adair walked, for the first time in his life, he envisioned a different future.
***
Hours bled away as they walked in silence. The afternoon grew hot and heavy, both boys having to tie their jackets around their waists. The sun soaked into their skin, Adair’s neck becoming hot and itchy. The towering trees had begun to thin, leaving the memories of Gortach deep within the forest, locked away.
“It feels so much longer walking back to our reality than escaping it,” Marquis stated.
Adair raised his eyebrow at the prince, not replying. Deeper and deeper, his thoughts ran into those hidden crooks and crannies of his heart, into places he fortified with a barrier. Preparing for his reality. One where it wouldn’t involve him and Emory as a team, preparing for a future where the Academy would have been theirs. One where his small reprieve of friends wouldn’t exist.
There was a murmur of sighs on the wind as it ruffled through the leaves, making Adair’s heart beat a little faster. Looking around, nothing seemed amiss or different. The overlaying songs of the forest were in full play, from the gurgling streams to the small animals running in the distance.
Adair stopped, his blood turning to ice. He whispered, “Marquis.”
The prince stopped, huffing. “Oh, he does exist. Welcome back to the land of living.”
“Something is wrong.”
Narrowing his gaze slightly, Marquis’s deep green eyes reflected flecks of gold in the afternoon light. Looking around, he shrugged. “I don’t see anything. What do you mean?”
Adair wiped his clammy palms on his pants, trying to steady his nerves.
Everything looked normal, but there again, on the wind, the whispers became clear—and sharp. Filling with screams. They shivered down his spine, clambered into the walls of his consciousness. They were the piercing pain through his body, the agony in his heart. His feet carried him, even though every fiber of his core was ignited.
He heard Marquis cursing behind him, following closely, their pounding footsteps charging across the forest floor. He ran so hard, the trees blurred around him, and his tunnel vision overwhelmed him. Again, those screams echoed all around him on the wind, in his mind. The once calmness of the forest seemed to ripple, and flickers of nightmares ignited around him. The daylight was gone. And the darkness awaited him.
Vicious claws grabbed at him. Within the forest, luminous eyes blinked from behind the tree trunks and brambles, Adair caught glimpses of huge serpentine bodies and hairless skin. The monsters snapped their teeth, jumping from their hiding spots, wanting to capture him. To tear, to rip, to consume him.
Running harder, his chest burning, his breath coming out in wheezes. He was running blindly into the night, his arms hitting the trees, fresh blood running down them. There was only him, Marquis disappearing on a distant memory. He was alone.
“Adair.”
Shuddering to a stop, he grabbed his temples, shutting his eyes quickly, not wanting to see them. Willing them away.
“Adair, you are almost home.”
Tears streamed down his face at the cool touch, and he was frozen. Cool fingers tipped his chin, and his eyes opened. Their pale arms, their elongated limbs. Their empty sockets, their pinned back smiles. Their long black hair blended into the night as they circled around him, murmuring in hushed tones.
“Who are you?” Adair asked.
The one closest to him tilted its head, weighing the question. “We are like you. Trapped in a world, in a place you don’t belong. A place that is dying. I have seen your heart, Adair. I have seen your dreams and your fears.”
Again, she placed a hand over his heart, his wild beat thrumming as she breathed down his neck.
Too close, too close, Adair thought wildly.
“And they are mine.”
The surroundings around them melted away, the screams fading to a pulse in the back of his mind. All he could take in, all he could make out, was her. There was the cackle of flames, and Adair blinked.
Flames roared all around them, uncontrolled and devouring everything they touched. He couldn’t feel the heat or their burn as they licked his skin. The creature giggled before him whispering, “See? They won’t hurt you, can’t hurt you. This darkness, this endless destruction, is what you crave. In all its beauty, and in all its might.”
“No.”
She curled her thin fingers into his collar bone, her voice echoing in his consciousness. “It’s time you accept the darkness in you. Stop. Fighting. Us.”
And with that, she pushed him back, surprisingly strong. Stumbling, he fell into the roaring endless fire, the flames crackling hungrily. He couldn’t tell where the fire began and ended within him; the bronze hues turned inky black.
“ADAIR!”
The black flames, turning his heart to ash.
“Mate, come on!”
The flashes of a world remade. The fear. But also, the greatness. It was all him.
“Do not die on me!! STRATTON!”
And him, sitting on a throne of bones.
The slap across his face was hard and unrelenting. Dots danced in his vision, and Adair took in a huge inhale, his lungs burning for air.
“Oh, thank the Black Sea.” Marquis sat down hard on the ground, shaking his head. His freckles stood out like their own constellations against his deathly pale skin. Blinking, the treetops and the clear afternoon sky came into focus, and Adair realized he was on his back, his limbs splayed around him. His tongue was swollen, dried blood along his lips and underneath his nose. His whole body felt like it had been chewed and patchily put back together.
Lying there, he was stunned, unable to piece together his reality and what had happened. A few minutes passed before he could manage to sit up, rasping, “What happened?”
Marquis choked out a laugh. “Oh, what happened? You mean you saying something was wrong, then freezing and convulsing in a fit the next second... oh and then the screaming? I tried to help you, but I couldn’t and your eyes...”
“My eyes what?” His voice sounded unfamiliar and worn.
Marquis shook his head, and when he looked at Adair, his eyes were wide and full of fear. “They were pitch black. Any trace of you was gone.”
Goosebumps rose on Adair’s arms, and he couldn’t think of anything to say to the prince. He barely understood it himself. His legs were shaky, but he stood slowly, dusting off his pants. Chills raked through him, and he donned his jacket, popping the collar. He couldn’t meet Marquis’s searching gaze as he started walking.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Marquis said.
In two strides, the prince crossed the empty space between them, grabbing his shoulder and turning Adair to face him. “You have to tell me what is going on.”
Adair pulled back. “I don’t have to tell you anything.”
Hurt flashed across his face, and Marquis threw his hands out to his sides. “Why?”
Adair snapped. Pushing his finger against Marquis’s chest, his voice shoo
k as he said, “Because you are no different than them. You’re only here to find out what you need. Not because you want to be.”
Adrenaline coursed through him, his anger stifling.
“Adair, calm down,” Marquis said.
With shaking hands, he started walking again, a thousand unsaid things hanging between them. Marquis followed him at a distance, his features darkening with every step. Adair didn’t look back again.
***
When they made it back to the Academy, the sun was starting to dip into the horizon, the tinges of dusk painting the sky in a brilliant array of colors. Adair paused for a moment, observing the Academy, the courtyard, the hive of a school that had been his home for as long as he could remember.
Marquis brushed past him, shooting him a raised eyebrow before making his way back to his crew. Adair sighed, knowing he should have explained more of what had happened, of how he was feeling.
Tightness constricted his chest, and he took a step forward, the words forming on his tongue, wanting to call the prince back, before that clear voice rang out to him, “Adair!”
Emory threw herself from the rock ledge that was their spot, flying down the hill to him. She barely glanced at Marquis as she ran by. Her ebony hair was unbound, and she wore a long black jacket and loose pants. Emory’s tied up boots smacked against the ground, hard, and she was breathless as she came to the forest’s edge.
“I’m so glad you’re okay.”
Tinges of pink blossomed across her cheekbones, as she searched his face, her mouth frowning delicately at his wounds and dried blood.
Closing his mouth, he looked at Emory. Usually, his pulse would race being this close, the endless possibilities of them dancing on his imagination.
Walking past her, he started the climb back to his room and some much-needed sleep.
“Hey, Adair!” She grabbed his hand, pulling him back to face her. Worry crinkled lines at the edge of her eyes. “Where have you been?”
Shrugging out of her grip, he buried his hands deep in his jacket pockets. His mouth felt dry, and he looked at her, truly looking at her, and he couldn’t muster any words. The silence dragged between them, becoming more uncomfortable with every second.
Heir of Lies (Black Dawn Series Book 1) Page 13
