Darkness Within

by Carli Castle

  “How dare you speak to me like that, you insolent boy!” Aali stood, smacking his hands on the table.

  “That’s enough.” Caleb didn’t have to yell for everyone to have their attention on him. “I am tired of standing in between people like a referee. And when I say people, I mean everyone here and Aali.”

  “Because you would rather have me sit and never speak,” Aali growled, his face now turning purple. “I will not stand by and listen to lies!”

  “What about it makes it sound like a lie to you, Aali?” Ash inquired, his eyes now a bright shade of blue. He looked like a man who was trying to hold on to his patience.

  “There has never been any indication that a Goddess became a dark entity that possesses people. Why has it never happened before? Why now? Why is this boy the only one to have seen those shadows,” Aali responded, his voice shaking with anger.

  “The girl I saved that night saw them too,” Lucas offered and Aali positively bristled.

  “A girl no one has been able to find since then,” Aali said. “How incredibly convenient.”

  “I’m done with this meeting,” Ash threw up his hands and walked toward the window to look outside. His ears were red.

  “And you should,” Aali snapped. “You’re all delusional.”

  Daniel cleared his throat, but said nothing.

  Lucas didn’t dare say anything else either. He just wanted to go home. He needed to be alone, because he was starting to have a hard time squashing down his anger.

  “I have to admit, though I trust Lucas, that it’s hard to think about that kind of creature doing those things,” Olon said in his deep voice.

  Lucas looked back at Olon. He seemed calm. His hands were crossed in front of him on the table. It wasn’t a huge shock to know even he had been having trouble, but it didn’t make it any easier on Lucas. He considered Olon a friend. Not a close one, but still.

  “I understand it’s hard to believe,” Lucas said. When no one said anything, he continued, “But I have no reason to lie about this. I know what I saw, and what I saw were claws that looked like knives. At first I even thought they were knives. Whether those creatures were the work of some darkness, or if that darkness is the result of old stories, I still saw them. They’re real, and they’re killing innocent people.”

  “I don’t need to listen to this anymore.” Aali stood and started toward the door before Caleb stood in between him and the door.

  Princess Harper was looking from Caleb to Aali, looking highly uncomfortable. She had expressed in more than one occasion how much she hated confrontation of any kind, and the tension in the room could be cut with a dull knife.

  “Thirst for power is what made the witch goddess fall off the deep end. It is that same thirst for power that makes those shadows,” Daniel said quietly. Everyone turned to him. He looked tired, with dark, bluish circles under his dark eyes. “I fully believe the stories. I also believe those writings were so much history as they were also a prophecy. I’m only sorry human sorcerers are the ones most susceptible to her.”

  Lucas felt sorry for Daniel. He looked like a man who had the weight of the entire world on his shoulders. And didn’t he? Daniel represented all Human Sorcerers of the non-magical realm. Of every country in every continent. It was a lot for one man to take on.

  “If there was some proof that would be grand,” Prince Noren said.

  “We all know I don’t have that, Prince Noren, but if what I saw were these Shadows, they’re roaming around Esmeralda and that is nothing but the truth. Also, my father…”

  “Your father,” Aali spat, his face scrunching up in disgust. “Who is your father to have any input in this council?”

  Lucas’s chest began to heat up.

  “My father is the smartest man I know,” he said a lot more calmly than he felt. “He remains the best healer Esmeralda has ever seen, and he knows wounds. He knows how to cure all of them, and he’s never seen wounds that wouldn’t heal before.”

  “I will remind you that for Human Sorcerers to become Shadows, according to your little book, they must murder thirteen innocent beings,” Aali stated. “There have been no reports of that many deaths in any of the other islands. How could they have become Shadows without anyone noticing that people were appearing dead? Doesn’t anyone else see the discrepancy here?”

  No one said anything. Lucas hated himself for not having an answer to that.

  “That’s because you’re a little liar,” Aali continued, barely containing his glee.

  Lucas looked away, knowing that if he stared at the man for another moment, he would get too angry to control it, and he really didn’t want to murder him, no matter how annoying he was.

  That old jerk.

  “I’m done explaining myself to you.” Lucas said, his heart beating very fast, hammering against his ribcage. It was almost painful to breathe.

  Who knew trying to stay calm would be so hard around this annoying little man?

  “Try explaining one last thing,” Aali said, coming to stand close to Lucas.

  “I don’t need to give you of all people any more explanations,” Lucas shot.

  “If the events happened like you said,” Aali continued as if he hadn’t heard him, “why aren’t you dead?”

  Lucas threw a glance at Caleb, but looked away rather quickly. This was the question he had been most afraid of, and there it was, on the table. Waiting for him to tell the whole truth.

  “How are you alive if they saw you? That is what you said, right?”

  Caleb cleared his throat loudly, drawing Lucas’s attention to him.

  How would people respond if they knew what had really happened that night? What if he were to tell the room what he’d done?

  “I guess you don’t have an answer for me.” Aali was almost singing with delight, walked to his chair and sat again, crossing his arms.

  “I think that’s quite enough, Aali,” Caleb said.

  “Why, because this young man can’t come up with an answer?”

  “No, because I say so,” Caleb snapped, eyes closed tightly.

  Aali sat up again, hands on the obsidian table as Harper cleared her throat.

  “He can’t give an answer to a legitimate question, and you, the kid his parents took in out of pity, are trying to shut me up!” Aali yelled.

  Lucas had enough. He slammed his hands down on the table, his anger turning into a rage he wasn’t used to feeling. He wasn’t an angry person, but he wasn’t going to be called a liar and just take it and do nothing. He was also not going to sit there and let Aali insult his family. And that’s what Caleb was, family. His brother, whether they had the same blood running through their veins or not.

  His hands were very warm, so much that it was becoming painful.

  Caleb came to stand beside him. “Lucas.” His voice was soft, but Lucas could hear the panic underneath it. He looked sideways at Caleb, his ears filling with a whirring sound. That same whirring sound that came when something bad was about to happen. “You should go home.”

  No, Lucas. Do it. Shut Aali up. Shut him up. The little voice was clear in his head, almost as if the owner was in that room with him.

  Lucas felt Caleb’s hand on his arm, pulling at him, and all he could think about was using his power on Aali and scorch his smug little face, melt his mouth closed. But he didn’t. It took more effort than he had ever used for anything else in his life, but he pulled it back. He stared straight into Caleb’s whiskey eyes and it was as if his soul fell right back into his body.

  He realized his heart was beating hard, so hard he could feel it pounding in his ears.

  “I should go home,” he whispered in between labored breaths.

  Aali started talking again, but he decided to turn a deaf ear to it. For his peace of mind. And for Aali’s own life.

  He grabbed his stuff and walked out the door, unseeing, only thinking of getting home and staying in there until his heart stopped pounding like it was going to burst
out of his chest.

  Chapter Eleven

  Lucas spent the afternoon in his home laboratory, mixing elements with no real direction in mind. He wished he could say he was an inventor or sorts, but he hadn’t been able to come up with anything that had not been done before.

  He was still shaky as he picked up one of the wide tubes. He couldn’t get the meeting out of his head, what had almost happened. He could have killed Aali and hurt all the other council members in the process. And he would have felt amazing for a moment, because that dark monster inside him had wanted that more than he’d ever wanted anything in his life. He could still hear its voice telling him to hurt Aali.

  Even just thinking about it had something fluttering within him. It was nothing more than a shiver, but it was enough to make the muscles in his arms spasm. The tightening of his arms ran down to his hands, and the cylinder he was holding shattered, slicing open his hand. He cursed and grabbed a piece of cloth to stop the flow of blood.

  A knock on the door drew out another curse. He went to answer, putting pressure on the wound, and stepped back quickly when he saw Elle standing there.

  The smile she’d had on when he opened the door vanished when she looked at the cloth, which was quickly becoming completely red.

  “What happened?” She stepped inside the house, immediately taking his hand and unwrapping it. She didn’t gasp, she didn’t look disgusted. It was actually impressive the way she remained calm and collected. “It’s not incredibly deep,” she murmured and held her hand over the wound. Her breathing changed as she concentrated on her task, and after just a moment, her hand began to glow golden. The scar began to close rather quickly, and soon, there was only a faint line across his palm. “There. You should probably wash your hands.”

  “Thanks,” he said and went to the kitchen to do just that. She followed him there and stood by the door, crossing her arms in front of her, and watching him.

  “You want to tell me what happened?”

  His breath hitched a little. “Just an accident in the laboratory.” He almost choked, because it hadn’t been just an accident. What would happen if he told her what he had been thinking at the time?

  Nothing good, that was for sure.

  “Okay.” She pursed her lips, and he went to her and kissed her just to get her mind off everything. He didn’t want to deal with any more questions right then. He was already going crazy as it was.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be at the healing house?” He looked at his watch. It was past six o’clock.

  “Not tonight, I’m off,” she told him.

  “I’m glad you’re here.” He led her out of the kitchen.

  “What were you making in the lab?” she asked him as she put her arms around his middle. He loved it when she did that.

  “Nothing in particular,” he said. “I wish I was a little more innovative, maybe that way I could stop working at the council.” And maybe he would stop being a menace to society, he added silently.

  As he finished the thought, a tap on the window had them turning to see a brown owl with a letter tied to its leg flying just outside. He opened the window and the owl swooped inside. It landed on the coffee table, and as he untied the letter from its leg, it pooped all over the table. Elle wrinkled her nose at it.

  “Maybe you should invent something to avoid that.” She pointed at the poop and conjured a cloth to clean it.

  “If only I had any grand ideas,” he murmured as he opened the letter and read it. It was from Caleb, making sure he was all right after the morning’s happenings. He set the letter aside, making a mental note to respond at a later time.

  Right then, all he wanted was to be with Elle.

  “Hey, do you want to come into the lab and see my collection of sleeper items?” he asked her and watched her face light up. He’d never shown her inside the laboratory.

  “I would love to!” She smiled wide and he led her into his home office, through it, and into the laboratory. It was full of tables and shelves that were filled with various non-magical items he’d collected over the years. She went to one of the shelves and picked up a small music box, while he busied himself with cleaning the broken glass from the vial he’d shattered. When she opened the top, a dancer popped up and twirled around as the sweet melody filled the space. “This is beautiful.”

  He watched her wind up the music by twisting the little button at the bottom, and smiled at the absent smile playing around her lips.

  “What’s interesting about it is how it can play music without magic,” he told her, going to her and turning the box over. After removing the little cover at the bottom, he showed her the mechanism. “See the tiny dots? Depending on where they are on the strip, they make a different sound.”

  “It’s amazing,” she whispered, then looked up at him. “Show me more.”

  He picked up what he knew was a remote control, but he didn’t really have anything to control with it. “This is a remote control.”

  “A remote control,” she repeated, looking at it with raised brows.

  “Yes, sleepers use it to control artifacts from a distance, like televisions.” He’d been wanting a television for a long time, ever since he found out about them years before.

  “Do you have one of those in here?”

  “A television? Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten my hands on one, but I maintain hope.”

  “And what exactly is a television?” she inquired. “I’ve never been to the other realm, and stuff that has to do with sleepers is not exactly welcome at home.”

  “Well, I’ve seen one only on paper, but they’re these square things that kind of look like they should be a mirror, but they play images on the screen, like movies.”

  “And movies are…”

  “Like books, but you watch the action instead of reading about it,” he explained.

  “That would be a lot more entertaining than reading.”

  “I beg to differ,” he said, though he hadn’t watched a movie. The idea of it was something that highly interested him, though, so he hoped he would get the chance to watch one someday.

  He set the remote down and picked up his favorite of the artifacts, the silver lighter.

  He flipped open the top and clicked the wheel, and fire spurted out, making Elle smile. “This is a lighter. They use it to light fires, as you can see.”

  “I know. I remember one of my teachers showing me one a long time ago. They are so much more convenient than matches.”

  “Much more.” He handed it to her when she reached for it, and she clicked the wheel over and over, making the flame go on and off again and again. She was like a child in a toy store.

  “Maybe you should take me to the sleeper realm sometime,” she suggested, putting down the lighter and turning to him.

  “I’ve been to the sleeper realm… well, never,” he confessed. The things he had were because he’d bought them in Esmeralda from smugglers. Those things weren’t exactly legal in Esmeralda. Not that they were illegal, per se, but they were definitely frowned upon.

  “Then let’s just go,” she said, her eyes bright. “Tell me you wouldn’t love to go and rub elbows with sleeper humans.”

  “I can’t deny I would love it, but there is a reason why it’s prohibited for Esmeraldans to go there. We don’t know their customs, or even how things work out there.”

  “Then we’ll learn. We’re smart, we can pick up on things if we pay enough attention. Plus, we wouldn’t go for very long, just enough to experience something different than what we have known all our lives.”

  He couldn’t deny it. Her proposal was the best thing he’d ever heard. He’d wanted to go to the sleeper realm ever since he’d found out about sleepers, which was at a very young age. It was one of his biggest dreams to go there, to live like they lived, even if it was for a short time.

  “I would love that,” he said. “But when would we go, and how? The portal is guarded for only the representative human sorcerer to be a
ble to go through it.”

  “That and anyone else authorized by the palace.” She smiled and it was a little mischievous. “I might be able to pull some strings.”

  He laughed. “When you get the approval, I will go with you.”

  “Promise?”

  He made a cross over his heart with his finger. “I promise.”

  She stuck out her little finger and he laughed as he intertwined his with it.

  “You are making a pinky promise. I hear those are not taken lightly by children in the sleeper realm, so you shall not take it lightly either.”

  “I would never.”

  She nodded once, then raised on her tippy toes to kiss him, and he realized there was nothing he wanted more than to go to the sleeper realm with her. He wanted to share those experiences with her, show her what he knew, and learn the things he didn’t know.

  She pulled back. “I almost forgot!” She pulled a white envelope from her back pocket and handed it to him.

  “What’s this?”

  “It’s the official invitation for my birthday party,” she told him while he began to open it. The envelope had designs embossed all over it, and he couldn’t help but think this was a lot more ornate than she would have liked. The inside was simple, yet elegant. It was all written on heavy cardstock and in black, the calligraphy absolutely exquisite.

  Her Royal Highness Princess Eleanore Saye Parker Dahl

  Cordially invites you to a ball in honor of her birthday

  On July 17th, 7:00 in the evening.

  We kindly request your RSVP as soon as possible.

  Dress is formal.

  Princess Eleanore has requested that her guests dress in black and white

  “Black and white, huh,” he said, pursing his lips. She made a face.

  “Yes, which is a relief, because if you haven’t noticed, my mother loves pink.”

  “And your sister,” he added, referring to Harper.