Darkness Within

by Carli Castle

  “That I know.” Magdalene chuckled. “Books are good, though.”

  Her mind was brought back to Lucas. He liked reading. Maybe he had a book on mythology she could read, she thought before she remembered she was furious with him.

  “Thank you for the delicious food, Magdalene,” she said before she turned to go to her room, her mood ruined by thinking of Lucas again. “I will be back.”

  “You’re welcome, Miss Elle. Don’t be a stranger,” Magdalene called as she walked out.

  She went straight up to her room, desperately wanting to be alone.

  She sat at her desk, looked outside, noticing the roll of dark clouds. A small dove pecked at the window, and Elle opened the crystal to let it in, wondering how long it had been there waiting. She scratched the dove’s head before it flew away and looked at the unfamiliar handwriting on the back of the white envelope.

  She opened it, took out the white piece of paper, and unfolded it.

  Elle,

  I realize I offended you with my stupid comments yesterday. My intention was never to do that, and I’m truly sorry. Please, give me a chance to explain?

  Lucas

  She read it a couple of times before she pulled out her personal stationery from her desk. She didn’t even know what to say. He had been pretty clear, and she really didn’t know what he had to explain.

  But alright, if he wanted to talk, she would give him that. Plus, if they couldn’t be more, then maybe they could still salvage the friendship. She didn’t have many people to talk to, and he was a great listener. He was also interesting, even if he didn’t think he was.

  She positioned the tip of her pen on the paper and thought of what she could write back.

  Lucas,

  I may be able to come by tonight, but it will have to be later. I have important things to do before I can come over.

  Elle

  There, no fluff, no promises.

  She folded the letter and put it into a small envelope. Raising her hand out the window, she waited until a dove noticed her and came to pick it up.

  When one did, she sat back and tried not to expect something else from him, but failed miserably. She watched the window like a hawk, and when another dove dropped a letter in front of her, her heart began to beat just a little faster in her chest.

  I could meet you somewhere if you’d like.

  He’d used the same paper she’d sent him. Deciding to follow suit, she wrote her response toward the bottom, and thought how cool it would be to have something that would send the message immediately instead of having to wait for undetermined amounts of time.

  I’ll let you know, she wrote, folded the letter, and sent it.

  She really hadn’t intended to play games, but it was just too much fun to make him sweat a little bit. She wasn’t even sure she should see him. She had to be at the healing house, and that could go until very late.

  He didn’t send any more notes after that. It was just as well, she thought, even though she was a bit disappointed. She picked up the original note and stared at it. He had good handwriting. It was clear and his cursive was quite nice. He had better handwriting than she did, she noticed, mildly annoyed. Hers usually changed every time she wrote something, which was a little weird, but she couldn’t control it. It just kind of happened. Sometimes it was pretty, sometimes it was barely legible.

  She set it down and moved away from the desk, lest she sit there for an hour, staring at his handwriting like some lovesick puppy. She had a bit longer shift at the healing house that night, and even though she didn’t have to go any time soon, she wanted to get ready as soon as possible without raising suspicion at home.

  As she dressed for her shift, her mind went back to Lucas, even when she tried to push him out and told herself to stop being stupid. Her brain told her it was absolutely insane to be thinking of him that much, of that ridiculously terrific kiss. But all her heart wanted was to wallow in it.

  The way he’d simply taken her mouth and made her head spin was like no other kiss she’d ever had. Not that she’d have many of them before, but still.

  He might have been lost in social situations, but there had been absolutely no shyness in that kiss. Why did he have to be so good at it? Now she was wanting to do it all over again, even if she wanted to punch his teeth at the same time.

  There was a knock at the door when Elle was pulling her hair away from her face and to the top of her head for her shower.

  “Who is it,” she called, not making a move to go open the door until she was sure it wasn’t her mother waiting to lecture her about something or the other.

  She was pleased when it was Harper’s head that poked through the crack of the door.

  “May I come in,” she asked with a tiny smile. She looked tired.

  “Of course,” she said, finishing up with her hair and turning to study her sister. “Now, how long has it been since you’ve been by my neck of the woods?”

  “A decade or so, but it could be longer,” Harper joked, sat on the bed. “What were you doing?”

  “Oh, nothing, just thinking about stuff.”

  “Thinking about what kind of stuff?”

  Elle smiled. It had been so long since she and her oldest sister had done anything together, even talked. It was nice. She really missed Harper. Ever since Harper had turned eighteen, it had been all business for her, and their relationship had become more distant, as Harper spent more time traveling and sharing with other people than she ever did at home.

  “I hear your party is coming along nicely,” Harper said when Elle didn’t say anything else.

  “Oh yes, just peachy,” Elle said.

  “You don’t sound too happy about it.” Harper leaned back against a pillow, her eyes a little heavy.

  “I’m not.”

  “But you chose everything you wanted. I know mother has already talked to the event planner to go to the sleeper realm for your hibiscus.”

  “That’s nice.” Elle tried to put some energy in her voice, but failed. She didn’t want a party, but it was true her mother was working really hard to make it a nice affair. The least she could do was be grateful for it. “It really is nice of her to do all this and not fight my ridiculous demands.”

  “They were not ridiculous demands. She asked you what you wanted, and you told her,” Harper said. “Maybe except for the hibiscus. That part was a little ridiculous, if not a little funny.”

  “You thought one of my gags was funny?” Elle brought a hand to her chest dramatically. “My life is complete.”

  Harper threw a pillow at her. “You know I think you’re hilarious, although you are very confrontational. That part I do not find funny at all.”

  “You could use a little bit more of a back bone, Harp.”

  “So mother is giving in to your every demand, but you still don’t want the party,” Harper said, instead of addressing Elle’s statement.

  Heavens, if anyone needed an ounce of gumption that would be Harper.

  “I do not want a party, no.” Elle laid on the bed. “I had to wake up early today to get fitted and I didn’t even get to have breakfast until fifteen minutes ago.”

  “At least the dress isn’t pink,” Harper pointed out.

  “I know. I can’t believe I got away with that,” she said, turning to face Harper on the bed. “Remember your last party, how you had to wear that disgusting, pink, frilly thing that made you look like one of those potions I make for indigestion?”

  Harper giggled and blushed. “That was horrifying.”

  “I wanted to kill it.”

  “I did too.”

  “And yet you wore it,” Elle said.

  “I bet you’ll look amazing,” Harper evaded again. Like always.

  “You should wear the same color as me,” Elle suggested.

  “Oh, dear, no. Mother would have a fit.”

  “She really would.” Elle’s smile was wistful.

  Harper laughed again. “You live to be c
ontrary to mother, don’t you, Eleanore?”

  “No, I just happen to not agree with pretty much anything that comes out of her mouth. I am not trying to be difficult.”

  Harper just smiled and shook her head.

  “So tell me what you were thinking about,” she said softly.

  “Of how nice it is to have you around,” Elle said. “Seriously, how long has it been since we had a chat?”

  “Too long, but I mean when I walked in. Something in particular?”

  “More like someone,” Elle admitted and Harper raised her brows.

  “Now you’ve piqued my curiosity,” Harper said. “Who might this person be?”

  “I don’t know if I should say.”

  “Do I know him?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is he a royal?”

  “Most definitely not.” Not that it mattered to Elle, but those ridiculous laws her father had in place were a pain in everyone’s behind.

  “Alright, not royal,” Harper muttered. “I give up.”

  “That was quick.”

  “Are you going to tell me who it is or not?”

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  Harper’s face changed, and Elle saw sadness in her eyes before Harper veiled it expertly. That couldn’t be healthy. Harper had taken all the princess training to heart.

  “Well, if I can give you one word of advice, Elle, if he’s not of royal blood, stay away.”

  “Are you serious?” Elle almost shook her head to clear it. “Are you really bringing that royal law thing up?”

  “Elle…”

  “Because I never thought you were the kind of person who would support a law like that, Harper. What is happening to you?”

  “I’m not saying I support the law, Elle, I’m just…” Harper stopped and looked outside, where fat droplets of rain began to fall.

  “Just what?”

  “What if father were to find out,” Harper asked, still looking outside.

  “So what if he did?”

  “Elle…”

  “Okay, so dad is strict, it doesn’t mean he’s going to uphold that ridiculous law.”

  Harper looked like she wanted to say more, but she didn’t, and Elle wasn’t going to ask. The whole conversation was making her fidgety. She hated being fidgety.

  “Just be careful,” Harper added, then stood and walked to the door.

  Elle stood as well. “And, of course, you will leave after cryptic message like that. You can’t do that.”

  “I have things to do.”

  “You can do them when you’ve told me.”

  “Elle, you know what I mean.” Harper left her hand on the knob. “You just refuse to think he would do what that law says.”

  Elle’s heart lurched. “But that law…”

  “Says that anyone courting us has to be of royal blood. Anyone outside of that will pay with imprisonment, banishment, and the removal of all powers. Putting someone in that position is not only unfair, it’s extremely selfish. For both involved.”

  Elle’s stomach fell.

  “And you really think he will do it,” she asked quietly, refusing to believe her father could be capable of upholding a law so stupid.

  When Harper nodded, Elle stood from the bed, restless.

  “I do,” Harper whispered. “I believe it, I know it.”

  With that, Harper walked out of her bedroom, leaving Elle standing there, her heart beating a million miles an hour, her mind blank.

  It shouldn’t matter. It shouldn’t because she was supposed to be angry with Lucas, but it still did. It still brought a lump to her throat, and the butterflies in her stomach hadn’t yet calmed down as she made her way into the healing house many hours later. There was a lot of movement, distracting her from the conversation with Harper. It wasn’t unusual for there to be a lot going on, she thought, as she teleported to the second floor, where Paul would be waiting for her.

  She greeted people on her way to Paul’s office, pausing only once to sign in at reception.

  She had her hand lifted to knock on Paul’s door when it opened, and Paul breezed right past her.

  “Come with me,” he ordered, his voice tight.

  She teleported after him to the front of the healing house, and her only thought was ‘what the hell’.

  She’d been there just a minute before, but the scene that waited for them wasn’t something she was prepared to see so soon after getting to work. Well, she wasn’t prepared to see it ever.

  Healers, nurses, assistants, were running around, shouting orders.

  She followed Paul outside, opening herself to enable her empathic powers, and immediately regretted it. All the pain hit her at once, almost bringing her down on her knees, but she stumbled forward. Blindly, she followed Paul to the emergency entrance, a wave of nausea catching her unaware when she saw the people collapsing all around her.

  “Paul…”

  “Parker, snap out of it,” Paul barked, walking away. “I need you to help me.”

  She followed him, trying to close herself to all the pain in that place. She knew better than to get sloppy like that. She knew never to open herself fully without knowing what was happening around her, and she had no idea what she’d felt that it was right to do in a healing house of all places.

  They entered a room where two people were laying side by side.

  “What happened?” She could only stare at the two men in the room with them. There was so much blood.

  One of them had a gash running across his chest, blood spurting out with more force than Elle had ever seen in her life.

  “They were attacked by a creature in the forest,” Paul said, but didn’t elaborate, although Elle knew. She just knew. It was the same creatures as before, like the ones that had attacked Lucas. “We’re short in staff, I need your help. If we don’t tend to them, they will die.”

  She felt herself nodding and walking toward the man with the great gash on his chest. She closed her eyes, working on closing herself off to all the other patients in the clinic. Their cries echoed through her mind, but she found the inner strength to close it enough that she could focus only on the man in front of her. His eyes were open, and he was looking at her, a tear running down the side of his face.

  Automatically, her hands knew what to do. She started to chant under her breath, because she had always found she became calm when she talked to herself. The words meant nothing, but they still helped her keep calm in the face of utter chaos. She grabbed potions as if she knew exactly where they were, instinct telling her where they needed to go and what they would do. The man continued to look at her, his pupils completely dilated. His mouth kept trying to move, but no sounds came out. She continued her work on him, using her hands to heal him, but the gash wasn’t closing.

  What kind of wound wouldn’t stop bleeding, wouldn’t heal?

  Her heart was beating in her ears, her hands shaking uncontrollably. She was cold, so cold. So many emotions ran through her, emotions that weren’t her own. So much fear of the unknown, of the darkness that was beginning to haze the edges of her vision.

  “Goddess, please, no,” she whispered.

  She looked into the man’s hazel eyes and it was like seeing straight into his soul. He knew he was dying. She could feel the confusion, the fear, then the acceptance, each feeling coming one right after the other, with no pause. He was going to die that night, and there was nothing she could do to save him.

  “No,” she said to him, but he only stared at her, his eyes beginning to glaze over. “NO,” she yelled, refusing to let him go.

  She had to save this man. She had to do something for him. What if he had a wife and children? How could she let him die just like that? She didn’t even know his name! She continued to run her hands over his wound, hovering just over it, pouring everything she knew onto that healing power, trying to make it close.

  He started to convulse.

  “Please, someone help me!”
/>   Someone stood next to her, passing potions, feeding them to him, pouring it over his wound. A second set of glowing hands worked alongside hers. She didn’t know whose they were, and she didn’t care to find out. Her eyes were focused on that hazel gaze, glazed over from too many pain relieving potions. It seemed to start working for a moment, and she even had a flash of hope go through her when he looked straight into her eyes and blinked at her, a sigh escaping his blood-stained lips.

  Then his violent shaking came back, and her hope flickered before it died. There was blood at her feet, inside her shoes, all over her clothing, her hands, warm, sticky, pulsing with life. Her hair had begun to escape the bun she’d left it in after her shower, tendrils tickling her neck, her face. She was acutely aware of everything, the air, the way her tongue sat in her mouth, her blinks over eyes that were feeling gritty.

  When the shaking stopped, she paused, her hands over him. In a moment of blissful confusion, she looked down at him, thinking it may have worked, that she had succeeded.

  Looking down at the man on the table, her brain refused to understand why he wasn’t moving anymore. She put her hand at his chest and shook a little, but nothing happened.

  She looked up at Paul next to her, saw his expression, and looked back down at the man.

  His eyes were staring, no spark left in them. His mouth was open, his teeth stained with red, and his wide chest was still.

  She felt the shiver run from the top of her head, down her arms, her back, her legs.

  “Oh no.” It was nothing more than a broken whisper going through dry lips. Elle closed her eyes tight, the room spinning around her. She heard Paul’s voice calling her from really far away, but she didn’t turn to look at him. She was blind when she opened her eyes, seeing only bright lights around her. She felt as if she were in a tunnel, things echoing around her.