Darkness Within

by Carli Castle

  After teleporting to the palace, standing under her balcony, he kissed Elle deeply, his arms around her shoulders. He loved kissing her and spending time with her, but he was having a hard time finding the usual joy in it that evening. He was worried about his brother and couldn’t stop thinking of him.

  She has such a beautiful neck. The thought came, and he pulled back and looked down at his hands, which were loosely around her collar area. Beautiful, indeed. So long, and so graceful. So fragile. He let out a breath, his eyes never leaving her neck, the milky whiteness of it, the graceful lines. How easy would it be to take it in your hands and squeeze? Think about it.

  Even as the words startled him, his found his hands moving of their own accord, wrapping themselves around her neck and squeezing slightly.

  Do it, Lucas. Harder.

  As the last thought filled his head, he stepped back from her, horrified with himself.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, trying to get closer again, but he took an involuntary step back. “Lucas, talk to me. Did I do something wrong?”

  “No, you’ve done nothing wrong,” he said, fighting back nausea. He was a ticking time bomb. He was sure the time would come when he wouldn’t be able to step away and he would give in to that feeling, and he would hurt her. He would squeeze her neck and he would kill her. “I should go.”

  A quick flash of hurt crossed her expression, and something in his chest constricted.

  “I’m sorry,” he said before she could leave.

  He hugged her because he needed to. He needed to hold her close and know he was never going to hurt her, that he would never give in to that feeling inside him that made him want to do terrible things.

  But it would be so easy, and so satisfying.

  “Are you sure nothing’s wrong?” she asked again, her voice muffled from being pressed against him, and he closed his eyes tight, trying to quiet down that damn voice.

  “Yes, I’m just really tired and stressed.” He stepped back again, tried to smile, and it felt stiff, as if his face had been set in stone.

  “I can help, if you want me to,” she said, but he shook his head.

  “No, I’ll be fine after a good night’s sleep,” he said, because he needed to learn to deal with this on his own. He couldn’t rely on other’s help, and he had to start working on it right away. “Don’t worry, okay?”

  “I will worry anyway, but I trust you when you say everything’s okay,” she said, kissing him again. He sunk into it for a moment longer, keeping his hands as far from her neck as he could.

  “I love you,” he whispered when she turned to glide up to her balcony.

  “I love you right back.”

  After watching her glide up and go into her room, he started to turn and teleport, but a movement stopped him. He walked toward the fence that kept the world and the palace separate and put his hands on it as he leaned forward to try and make out anything. There was a rustle beyond, and he decided to go see what it was, despite his heart beating hard against his chest, and his instincts telling him to just go home.

  He followed the small noise, going deeper into the darkness of the trees. There was a big moon tonight, so he could at least see patches of ground and movement. He continued walking forward, his legs shaking with every step, and when there was a loud gasp, he moved quicker.

  Come, Lucas. Come to me. Let me show you.

  He walked faster, letting instinct take over, and when he heard the terrified screaming, he ran. He didn’t care about the voice in his head, he only cared about the voice pleading for its life. In his mind, as he jogged forward, an image flashed. Darkness and something moving on surfaces that shouldn’t be moving. He didn’t try to make sense of it, because he was too preoccupied with getting wherever it was he had to.

  The scene that greeted him wasn’t what he had been expecting. He expected to see knife-like claws and fog everywhere, but it wasn’t that. Instead, there was slight figure standing in a small clearing, a terrible weapon high above its head. The blade moved, it moved like it had a life of its own, and Lucas could swear there were moving faces on its surface. It had an evil aura around it, almost glowing despite the darkness. It was gigantic, too big for that person to be able to wield it.

  Before he could react, that sword came down and slashed through a young man’s chest.

  There was a scream. The figure snapped its attention to Lucas and he realized it had been he who screamed. As the young man crumpled to the ground like a rag doll, something silvery, nothing more than a wisp of smoke, came out of him and disappeared into the sword.

  Lucas didn’t think. He raised his hands and fire shot out of them. He didn’t even have to be angry, because for some reason, he just knew what to do. Fire balls went toward the culprit, but it deflected the fire as if it did that kind of thing every day. It moved fast, jumping backwards, the sword disappearing. He couldn’t see a face, nor any characteristics that he could use to identify them. Something hit him hard on the chest and he flew back several feet, and slammed on the ground. The air left him in a rush, but he found it within himself to stand and shoot more fire at the killer, who began to run deeper into the trees.

  He stood and ran after it. It was extremely fast, light on it’s feet, but he was also fast and tried to keep up as much as possible. Suddenly, he—she?—stopped and turned to him. He skidded to a halt when he heard the guttural sounds. He didn’t know what it was, but he was sure it was the killer making them under that mask.

  The fog began to roll in, that thick blanket of fog, licking at his heels.

  As the killer disappeared from sight, Lucas saw three shadows moving forward in that way they did, as if they were gliding, not even touching the ground. He reacted by pure instinct and shot his hand forward, only wanting to survive, not kill. This time, instead of fire, the ground trembled around him. He stumbled, almost falling with the movement of the ground at his feet, but he found his balance.

  He didn’t have time to be confused, to ask himself why the ground was trembling, but the Shadows stopped in their tracks as the ground cracked around them. Soon, the earth was rising around them, creating a tight cocoon, trapping them until they couldn’t move.

  The three shadows screamed in unison, a horrible high pitched sound that pierced through Lucas, and he winced. He was trembling all over. There was fire on a few bushes ahead from when he had tried to attack the killer and Lucas was aware it would spread quickly if he didn’t get help right away. Even as the thought came, fairies appeared and began taking care of the fire, while Lucas conjured a paper and pen from his office at home and wrote a quick note to Caleb. He whistled until a dove came along and told it to take it to Caleb. Lucas wasn’t sure if Caleb was feeling well enough to deal with everything, but he had to know what had just happened.

  As he waited, he tried to calm himself, but he was shaking so much his teeth were chattering. He was becoming very dizzy, the world around him circling until he had to let himself drop on the ground to stop himself from fainting, but even then, it was difficult to fight the vertigo. He was seeing double by the time Caleb arrived with Jaleil and Olon in tow. Lucas didn’t even wonder why Olon was with Caleb and not Aali, who was his counselor.

  “Lucas!” Caleb made his way to him, his arm tied in front of him in a sling. His nausea was intensified by the uncontrollable shaking. Olon and Jaleil were right there as well, looking at him with concerned expressions. The hissing of the Shadows intensified, and Olon turned around and visibly blanched. How someone with such dark skin paled that much and remained standing, Lucas would never understand.

  “What—what…” Even Olon’s voice was weak as he walked over to the earth cocoons.

  “Attack,” Lucas managed to say before his vision grayed, and his stomach heaved.

  “We need to call a meeting with the rest of the council,” Caleb said firmly. “Olon, get my father to come down to Mount Blanche to look over Lucas, we don’t have time to take him to the healing house. Jale
il, make sure all the fairies taking care of the fire are also taken to the council for questioning.”

  “Right away,” Olon said and he and Jaleil disappeared.

  When they were gone, Caleb turned back to Lucas. “Now tell me what happened.”

  “I saw the thing who’s been killing people,” Lucas murmured, his stomach churning. “It had a sword. It was like nothing I have seen in my life.”

  “What kind of sword?”

  “I don’t know, I just told you I’ve never seen anything like it,” Lucas snapped.

  “And how did that happen?” Caleb pointed at the Shadows.

  “I trapped them. I don’t know how, but the earth trembled and I trapped them instead of killing them,” Lucas explained, remembering how he had been thinking he didn’t want to kill anyone at the time. Maybe that was how it worked. Had he finally found a way to curb his powers so he didn’t hurt anyone? Was it all that simple?

  “Up until now, even with my experience a couple days ago, I held hope they were not real,” Caleb mumbled.

  “You held hope I was lying, or crazy, then,” Lucas said. “There’s another victim.” He made an effort to stand, and went with Caleb to show him where the body was.

  The moon was shining on his eyes, green eyes, as they stared up at the sky, unseeing. He looked like he was Lucas’s age.

  “I’m going to guess his soul won’t come back either,” Caleb said, staring down at the man. There was blood everywhere, spreading from the gash in his chest. His heart was gone.

  Lucas didn’t even remember seeing the killer taking the heart. Then he recalled the image of the silver wisp going into the sword, and things began to click.

  “No, it’s not coming back,” he stated. Caleb looked at him, a question in his eyes. “The sword is trapping the souls. That thing seemed like it was alive, and that’s why. When the killer injured this man, a silver wisp floated from the wound and it went into the sword. I am almost positive it was his soul and this person is stealing them.”

  You’re a smart one, Lucas. You could do great things. The whisper came to him, and Lucas wanted to shout at it to stop torturing him. He was going crazy. He knew it. This was not normal. When people heard voices, it usually didn’t mean anything good.

  Caleb looked horrified.

  Lucas didn’t get to say anything else, because a couple of people had teleported to the clearing. Harper was one of them. She was not dressed for official business. She was wrapped in a robe, her hair braided all the way down her back. Ash was the other one. He also was in a robe, but he didn’t look like he had been sleeping like Harper did. How he got there so fast, Lucas would never know. A letter would take much longer to get to him than it did Harper.

  “What is going on?” came King Patrick’s voice. Lucas hadn’t even seen him teleport. Maybe he hadn’t. Lucas wasn’t about to ask, he was trying too hard not to pass out.

  “Your Highness, I apologize for having to wake you at this unearthly hour,” Caleb said. “There has been another incident.”

  “I saw him. Her. The killer,” Lucas explained, not sure of what to say, or how to say it. “He or she killed someone else.”

  “Who’s been killed?” King Patrick asked, his face a little pale.

  “A man. We have not identified him yet, as we all just got here,” Caleb told him as more people began appearing in the clearing. Aali was grumbling until he saw the young man on the ground, then he stepped back, his face a little disgusted. As he stood on the sidelines, his eyes darting back and forth to the body, he finally noticed the three trapped shadows and he paled.

  “Is-is…” he stammered.

  “Shadows, like in the prophecy,” Ash said. “A thing of darkness, claws like knives, barely human.” He was walking closer to the shadows, studying them as they made guttural sounds and tried to escape to no avail.

  Prince Noren stepped forward, looking quite frazzled, and said nothing. That was a first to Lucas. Prince Noren had nothing to say? Aali was stammering?

  Lucas’s head was spinning, his stomach rolling, and his knees shook until there was no way he could remain standing without assistance. He stumbled a little, the world around him blurring. He blinked to clear his vision, but the world just kept going in and out of focus.

  “I need to sit,” he mumbled right before his knees finally gave way and he found himself face up on the ground. He felt nothing besides the nausea. No cold, no heat. He almost felt like he was floating.

  There was talking around him, but it all sounded like an echo. He didn’t recognize any voices, he didn’t understand what they were saying. He gave in to the darkness enveloping him, his eyes closing. Then there was someone lifting his lids. He wanted to tell them to leave him alone, but he couldn’t really speak, there was no energy left in him. A light shined right into his eye, then the other one, and he wanted to curse whoever was doing this to him.

  Just seconds later, he was out cold.

  ***

  It would be so easy to just give in, Lucas. You could do really amazing things. Let me show you. Just let me show you.

  His eyes popped open as the voice echoed in his head. He hated that unknown voice that had begun to speak to him with increasing frequency.

  He was lying down sideways on a comfortable sofa, which was confusing. When the fuzziness in his ears dissipated, he heard the murmur of voices. He lifted his head, and realized he was in Caleb’s office and the rest of the council was gathered in there as well. Everyone stopped talking when he sat up.

  “How are you feeling?”

  Lucas turned toward the voice. His father was looking at him with concerned eyes.

  “Like I’ve been sleeping for days,” he responded.

  “You’ve been out for about twenty minutes,” His dad explained.

  Lucas looked around and noticed the shadows had been brought to the room, still trapped in the piece of earth. They were hissing angrily, but mostly they were just glaring at the people in the office.

  “It looks like he’s doing fine.” His dad stood. “If he seems weakened like before, call me straight away. Meanwhile keep him sitting as much as possible.”

  “Thanks, dad,” Caleb said. “We should go on and start this meeting.”

  “I will leave you.” Lucas watched his dad put his things into his healer’s bag.

  “Not a word to mother or anyone else, please,” Caleb told him, and his father nodded.

  When he was gone, Caleb placed a muffle charm on the door.

  “This is all a lot worse than we thought,” Caleb started, addressing the whole room. “These shadows are the definitive proof we needed to know something a lot bigger is happening around us.”

  “There’s something worse than having these creatures in here with us,” Prince Noren spat, his face tight.

  “Yes, there is something worse, Prince Noren,” Caleb addressed him calmly. “This just means Udyia was real and she is here, having possessed someone, and we have no clue as to who it could be.”

  “Then you need to get out there and find out who this person is. You’re the president, after all,” Noren spat.

  “And I will be working overtime to find out who it is, but I can’t do that without your help.”

  Noren snorted. “How am I supposed to help if I…”

  “Oh be quiet, Noren, for once in your life. President Sillen needs all of our help and all of our support, despite the fact you seem to hate him for no apparent reason,” Princess Harper snapped. All eyes turned to her in shock, and she blushed and looked down, while Prince Noren turned beet red and said nothing else.

  Caleb cleared his throat, his eyes a little glassy, clearly trying not to stare. “Um, I guess I should let Lucas tell us the story, as he was the one that walked in on the killing tonight.”

  Lucas sat up all the way. “When I saw the killer, they were raising a sword over the man's head, the sword that killed him", he began.

  “A sword?” King Patrick took a seat on one of the spa
re chairs. He looked really tired.

  “It was nothing I have ever laid eyes on before,” Lucas explained. “It was black, and broad, the blade was too big, and too wide.” He shivered as he thought of it. “It moved, the blade, it moved like it was alive. And when the killer attacked that man, his soul floated straight into the blade.”

  “We believe that is why the souls of recent victims have not come back to denounce their killer,” Caleb said.

  “And you didn’t see the killer’s face,” Daniel asked. His arms crossed and he was standing on a corner of the room, far from everyone else. He also looked exhausted, with dark bags under his eyes. He looked a little pale as well.

  “No, it was covered,” Lucas remembered.

  In the silence that followed, Lucas thought of Elle. She could have been trapped in that situation, and could have been seriously hurt. If he hadn’t squeezed her neck first, that was, and all because she was going out and unreasonable hours to meet with him. Guilt gripped at his throat, and he knew that if anything ever happened to her because of him, he would never be able to forgive himself. When he looked up, Caleb was placing the element spheres in the middle of the room.

  They glowed as soon as all were in position, intricate patterns drawing themselves in between them, connecting them together in a circle of light. The four High Priests appeared in the middle, bathed in light that dissipated the minute they stepped out of the circle. Althea looked around at the people in the room. She didn’t look surprised to see everyone gathered there, and Lucas wondered if it was because she knew what was going on.

  The High Priests claimed they didn’t see everything that happened in Esmeralda, and that was why the council was in place. They were wise, but they weren’t all-knowing.

  Lucas watched the four of them, unsure if he should start talking, or just stay quiet. He was aware of the moment Althea saw the shadows trapped in the piece of earth. It was a moment Lucas would never forget, because it actually filled him with glee that had nothing to do with his fire power. Althea opened her mouth, her eyes wide, her head whipping around as she looked around the room blindly. She then proceeded to close her mouth and open it again in rapid succession, like a fish out of water. Lucas had to work hard to keep himself from bursting out laughing. Mostly because it was wildly inappropriate, not because he cared if Althea was upset by it.