Page 67 of The Illuminated
“They have somewhere we can take shelter for the night, before we go to the King’s City to teleport the hell away from here.”
Some of the trees suddenly emitted a shimmering silver light that outlined their trunks, forming a trail for us to follow through the darkness. I pressed my hand against the nearest glowing bark, and the whispers grew louder. In my mind’s eye, I could see this tree’s connection to all others in the forest, sending messages to each other through their interconnected roots beneath the earth. I heard them tell each other that Áine, the witch who resurrected the forest and was meant to resurrect all the lands of the realm, needed safe passage to conquered Thora. I heard them speak all at once, and then into the single voice of the tree I touched.
Unwelcome witches have breached our borders. But you will be safe here. Follow the path. We will confuse the Shadow King and obscure you from his sight.
“Thank you,” I said aloud. We followed the mystical trail markers as woodland creatures scurried away from our rapid strides, and soon we found ourselves at a rock formation jutting out from the ground. It looked like two giant slabs of stone piled on top of each other, and a final glowing tree lay just in front of it. A hole beneath the second rock indicated a makeshift cave inside the earth.
“I hate tight spaces,” I whispered.
Daelon kissed my forehead. “You’re sure about this?” When I nodded, he grabbed my hand, and we made our way to the entrance. “I’ll go first and help you through.”
I bit my lip, still heady from power and jumpy from our new roles as hunted outlaws. Sliding into an underground cave in a dark forest wasn’t really helping the situation, but I figured if we were at the point of our quest where trees were talking… it might be prudent to listen.
Daelon moved onto his stomach and pushed down into the creviced abyss. I heard a light thump, and soon his hands were reaching for me from the darkness.
“I’ve got you,” he said, and I believed him.
I plunged into the cave, and his arms caught me at my torso and helped me onto solid ground. I pushed away the thought that we’d clambered into our own grave, quickly conjuring an orb of light. The space was tight, and it smelled like dirt and dampness. One side was made of limestone, extending out into a thin cave opening. The rest was made of tightly packed earth and exposed tree roots.
The light illuminated the angles of Daelon’s face, and I anchored myself to him so I wouldn’t panic.
“You okay?” he asked, touching my cheek. “Hard to imagine you fearing anything after what I just witnessed.”
I swallowed. “That was all of them—the witches he’d scorned. Well, I guess it was me too. But underneath the power, I’m just a witch scared of being buried alive.”
He sighed. “As much as I want to look at you, for a very, very long time, let’s turn off the light just to be safe,” he said.
He pulled me into his arms as we sat in the cavernous darkness, and I slowly came back down to earth. I felt his face, and it drove away my growing panic of closing walls and enemies hiding in the dark. I paused as my fingers brushed over wetness.
“Are you crying?” I whispered. In this kind of darkness, nothing existed but our voices and our touch.
He was silent for a moment, and I lay my head against his chest to listen to his steady heartbeat.
“I’m afraid I’m going to wake up soon, and you’ll still be dead,” he said in a low voice.
“Oh, Daelon,” I said. “I’m so sorry. I couldn’t tell you I had to die to go to the Akashic Records because I barely understood it myself, and it all had to happen exactly as it did. Just like you couldn’t tell me about linking my life to Lucius’s. I tried to tell you, after it happened, but you couldn’t hear me.”
He didn’t speak, but he ran his fingers over every inch of my body as if he needed constant assurance I was really there.
“I’ll prove how alive I am. Let me show you what I saw in the Akashic so you’ll understand,” I said.
Our hands met in the dark, our fingers intertwining like that indescribable tapestry of existence. I reached inside my mind, transferring those memories to him.
“I believe you,” he breathed. “You really did it.” He kissed my hair. “Now stop almost dying, or, you know, actually dying. Please.”
“I’ll do my best,” I said. “I’m still sorry. How have you been dealing with your shadow integration?”
He laughed bitterly. “As if I’ve had time to think about any of that.”
“Right. I’m sorry,” I repeated, because saying it the first few times hadn’t really done the trick, and I wasn’t sure it ever would.
“Stop apologizing. None of it matters anymore because you’re alive, and we have a future to build.”
I wanted to believe the sentiment, but I knew the past was just as much a part of us as any hope of our future. Its haunting wasn’t going away anytime soon.
Chapter22
The first bit of light trickling down into the cave from the sunrise told us it was time to leave. We’d spent the past hours recharging and whispering promises and dreams of our home by the ocean, building ourselves a reprieve from the dark uncertainty of the night.
