Page 195 of Hidden Kingdoms

It leached into my bones as I shivered there on the floor, no longer able to feel the heat of Bastian’s hands on me, or the magik that had flooded me only a second ago. I was submerged in a bone-deep loneliness that I wasn’t sure belonged to me. The wet fabric of my pyjamas aided the invading freeze as it crept through me inch by inch.

The pungent smell of mould and damp places filled my nose as I shrank away from the looming darkness. Shafts of lightfiltered down from a murky window set high in a dirty brown wall, covered in huge, flaking patches of peeling paint. There was just enough light to see that I was tucked into a corner, the edges of my vision draped in a thick shadow that gave nothing away. If anything else was here with me, it was hiding within their veil.

But then, I wasn’t even really here.

Twisting on my knees, I winced at the touch of solid stones beneath me, rough on my torn skin. Unlike the other times I had been pulled from my body; I wasn’t just overlooking something happening. I could feel the cold, hard floor beneath me. The chill in the air a presence that invaded my lungs with a strange thickness that coated my tongue, different from any cold I had experienced in Incaendium.

A flurry of motion had me scrambling back, my back hitting the wall as I panted against it. The shadows lurched around me, coming so close they grazed my skin, and for one fear-inducing moment, the memory of my back being sliced open consumed me until their touch sparked a bolt of familiarity that I wanted to run from.

He couldn’t be here.

They pulled away, retreating to the edges they looked on from, their depths revealing a new layer to this nightmare as a sharp tug in my chest stole my next breath.

As the cold wound around my lungs, I struggled to pull in any air as I faced the man who had somehow filled spaces inside me I hadn’t known were there. His molten silver eyes were glazed, unfocused and now dull in a way I had never seen them before.

I crawled forward instantly, needing to be closer, and though Kaius’ beautiful face was directly in front of me, there was nothing on his features that suggested he saw anyone else in here with him.

A barely perceptible twinge of energy flickered in the tips of my fingers, but I couldn’t find the will to reach for it; I was frozen. The haunted look that was etched on his features as he knelt before me, a mirror of my own. I stared in horror as his expression began to morph, eyes tightly closed, mouth gritted into one of complete agony.

A quiet, steady, drip, drip, drip became the only sound I could focus on despite the rush of my own heartbeat so loud in my ears. My stomach churned at the dark stains that were steadily growing across the stone floor, scarlet puddles pooling with every second I couldn’t look away.

The tears that had begun streaming down my face would soon create their own pools. Gone as fast as it came, I winced as a flash of heat seared across my forearms, forcing me to look at him fully once more.

His hands were clenched into fists as rivulets of blood traced patterns down his skin, dripping off his knuckles from cuts hidden under the fabric of his jumper. A flash of my nightmare, of charred skin and burning flesh, was enough to give me an idea of what was hidden. Drawn again to the red streams painting his skin, I noticed amongst the silver rings that adorned his knuckles a single gold ring.

One I knew intimately, one I had made. One that I suspected, if I ever got a chance to go back home again, would be missing from the wooden box it had been kept in.

“Oh, Kaius,” I managed to croak out, chest wrenching in recognition, and my shaky voice reverberated through the cold room, shattering whatever veil I had been hidden behind.

The shadows that had concealed the edges of the room had begun to converge, drawing closer, almost brushing against him as he strained in an effort to control his pain.

“What do you want?” he demanded, chest heaving, and our eyes met as he finally noticed I was there.

A panic that had been fluttering just beneath the surface since Blair had woken me began to stir, its claws grating along my insides an incessant caress reminding me just how lost I was right now.

Is this what she had meant about Kaius being gone?

I couldn’t trust that this was real, but I couldn’t count on it being false, either. I’d had such little time to explore whatever powers I had, I knew that I had no fucking clue what was happening. I could feel myself as a solid presence, the man before me just the same as he had been the last time I’d been in his arms, but there was something about the room that didn’t feel real.

“Who are you?” Kaius’ brow furrowed in confusion. “What’s your name?”

Not a flicker of recognition was anywhere to be seen as I reached out towards him, straining to touch him, needing to ease his suffering. I willed even the slightest ounce of magik to flow into me, but it just wasn’t there.

A pain all my own sliced through me as he flinched away, whatever plane I had crossed to be here was not enough for me to breach this barrier between us. I didn’t know what he could see. Whether I was just another shadow like the ones slowly creeping up on us, or if somehow he didn’t know who I was.

Kaius threw his head back, the muscles of his neck tensing as he clenched his jaw, biting down on a groan of agony. His chest heaved as a sickening splatter of blood followed, splashing hot across my exposed knees, but I refused to look down.

Heat was blooming across my forearms, the room around me fading as it grew. I willed myself to stay, to be here with him, so I inched closer, ignoring how the floor beneath me grew slicker the closer I got. The sharp sting of my torn knees centred my mind, pulling Kaius more clearly into focus.

All I could hear other than his ragged, agony-laced breathing and the drip of his blood onto the hard floor was the sound of my heart being shredded.

“Elodie,” I whispered softly to the dark room as my soul screamed out for his. “My name is Elodie.”

EPILOGUE

I’d long gotten used to the cold in this kingdom, the bite that found any exposed inch of skin and froze it. I kept my cloak wrapped around me; a layer of heated air chased off the worst. It was the stillness that would never feel right to me. Even the violent storms at the summits in Ty Rhaia wasn’t enough.

I longed for the tempests of home. The gales that rattled my bones as they carved chasms into the rock that made up my kingdom. Not caring for anything in their paths.

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