Page 193 of Hidden Kingdoms

My heart cracked, splitting as I watched this younger version of Kaius. Because I knew without a doubt that was who I was now looking at, twisting in pain, silver eyes wide and unseeing as he fought the invisible demons that were tormenting him.

I tried to reach for him, but just as before, my feet were rooted to the floor, and I was forced to bear witness—incapable of holding back the sob that left me.

In the space within a blink, it was the Kaius I knew again, towering over me, the one who had held me in his arms. I called out to him, desperate, but the wind stole my voice. The words carried away from me, sent to the play among the swaying branches that had no interest in us.

It didn’t take Kaius’ voice though, letting those notes of despair fall between us as he staggered, managing a single step closer before he stumbled. His knees hit the packed dirt, head tipping back on a roar filled with suffering. Shakily, he held his arms out, palms up to the blue canvas above us, and I watched in horror as fissures opened up along them, flesh splitting open as lines of fire writhed, the edges charred to a sickening black.

Instinctively, I lurched forward needing to stop this. To find a way to end his pain, but just as before, my legs wouldn’t obey. They wouldn’t move, and I dropped to the floor. The solid dirt scratching at my knees, I was dressed in the clothes I was sleeping in. The shallow cuts didn’t matter, not when Kaius’ cries of pain sliced so much deeper.

I scrambled forward awkwardly as far as my frozen legs would allow, clawing at the ground, desperate to get to him. My nails split open, and beads of blood watered the dirt along with the tears that streamed down my face.

The sound of his pain seeped into the very earth that the wildflowers bloomed from, marking it forever as a place of his suffering.

Would more flowers bloom from those drops of agony, or would the land become barren, the salt of my tears condemning this place, so the next time I was brought here I would see exactly where my anguish had landed?

No matter how I cried out, how I pushed all I was into my attempts to reach him, I went nowhere.

My heart wrenched, that strange pull now unbearable as it urged me forward, but I remained useless. My magik out of reach, Kaius out of reach.

Kaius roared out to the clearing, and my blood froze in horror as I could do nothing but watch as the fissures that marked his body rose higher. Creeping beneath his sweat-soaked top before emerging to claw at his face. As his form changed again, I choked on a cry as without his beard, I could see every inch of those vicious, flaming lines that were crawling to his jaw.

I screamed for anyone to help, my throat tearing with the force of it, but we were alone. There was no one here to witness his agony except the silent trees and the clouds that trailed across the sky, the bees that continued their journeys collecting pollen on their fat, yellow–dusted bodies. And they didn’t care.

I kept my eyes on Kaius, allowed the pain of his torment to soak into me; maybe that way it wouldn’t hurt him as much, if I took some for myself.

Slumping forward, my fingers gouged lines into the dirt beneath me as defeat pressed heavy against my shoulders. Accepting that all I could do was stay here, watching and waiting for someone to free me from the hell that was playing out inside my head.

69

CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE

ELODIE

This time, when I was woken from my dream, it wasn’t by strong, warm arms holding me gently. No, this time it was a torrent of icy water that streamed down my face, soaking my clothes and the bed sheets beneath me.

With a gasp that just meant I choked on more water, I lashed out, knocking aside the jug that was hovering above me, and cutting off my impromptu waterboarding experience before I shot upwards. Wiping the water from my eyes, my pyjamas sticking to my skin, Blair’s face came into focus, standing by the side of my bed.

“What the actual fuck,” I spluttered, my voice hoarse; a twinge of pain shooting through my throat. As beads of water continued dripping down my face, I ignored them, instead staring at Blair with incredulity.

“You were having a nightmare.”

The painful thud of my heart, and the light layer of sweat that gleamed on my skin in all the places the water hadn’t reached, told me she was right, but I couldn’t recall it.

If the security here was supposed to be next level, then why do I keep getting broken into?

My eyes circled the room noting that it was just the two of us. “And that was the only way you could think of to wake me?”

“It worked, didn’t it?” She shrugged, not an ounce of remorse on her face.

She had a point.

“How do you keep getting in here, anyway?” I asked, scraping the wet hair from my face, and shivering slightly as the icy water seeped into my skin as my heartbeat shuddered through my body.

“Just do.” Was her way of an answer.

“And is there a reason for that? Other than the water torture of course?”

My hand slid to a non-wet part of the empty bed; the sheets were cold, though part of me was sure Kaius had been here last night.

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