From Shadow and Silence, page 4
I forced myself to sit up. Chains rattled. Even though my bonds were made of shadow, they still made the same sounds as those forged of steel. Apparently, The Gray liked the effect.
Braelynn hissed from her cage above me, and while Garrik glared at her, he didn’t do anything else. Good, because I would have found a way to kill him for that.
She started to shake even more, and I looked up at her, risking a glance as she began to grow ever so slightly. I didn’t think Garrik noticed, but maybe this was good. Perhaps she’d be able to break free of her cage. As long as she didn’t hurt herself, I was fine with whatever she did. Together, we would find a way out of this.
It was odd. Just moments before I had been lamenting that perhaps I might die, that maybe I had been forgotten and everything was lost.
But the idea of Brae and I coming together to kill this man? To find a way to end him? That changed everything.
It was an ending I could put a face to and was one that gave me the strength to keep going. In the back of my mind, I knew it wasn’t just him. It was the others, too. It was Easton. But thinking of him hurt. Just thinking his name hurt my soul. So, I pushed those thoughts away. I could only work on the tangible. On those I hoped were looking for me. Although part of me didn’t want them to. They needed to protect the realm—not only its Priestess.
I held my shoulders back, my bones aching, my stomach growling. I couldn’t remember the last time I had eaten. It had been before the battle, I knew that much. And that seemed like ages ago.
I knew who I was, who I needed to be. I would not feed on my anger, my pain.
I would not become bitter. I would not become cruel. I would not allow this man to take everything from me—everything I had left anyway. He had already taken so much. Had literally ripped my soul into a thousand tiny pieces. I had somehow glued them back together. I wasn’t going to let him do it again.
“You look so angry for someone without power. You don’t even have your Wielding. Your precious magic that was supposed to protect the realms. And yet, The Gray snapped his fingers, and you have nothing. You are chained, restrained. You were never supposed to be anything. Were you, Lyric?”
My Wielding took that moment to slowly slide through my body. Not a rush, not with mighty force, but as a trickle. I could feel the Earth beneath my feet, the Air dancing in my hair, the Water trickling behind me as it edged ever closer. I could feel the Fire of the burning lamps on the other side of the iron gate. And I could feel my soul wavering on the edge of an abyss. One that could change my destiny or keep me on the path of truth and wholeness.
I didn’t know where that would lead, but I could feel my Wielding coming back. And that was enough for now.
I just needed to wait him out a little bit longer. I let him continue talking, rambling on, trying to torture me with his snide remarks.
“You talk a lot for a man who’s fourth in command,” I taunted. I had to keep him talking because my magic was coming back. And the closer I got to having the ability to use my Wielding, the closer I was to escape. At least, that was my hope. I didn’t have a plan beyond one step at a time. But Easton had gotten out of this realm before. I would do the same. I risked another glance up at Braelynn. I saw that she was once again growing. Not so much that anyone who didn’t know her well would notice, but still...
That was good. It meant she was planning to try and help me. At least, that’s what I hoped.
I didn’t understand fully what a Familiar was, or what she could do. But if she had the ability to spew fire, that was a weapon we could use. She’d be able to protect herself when we escaped this place.
“I’m not the fourth. Not with Easton no longer a part of us. I’m the third.”
“Are you sure?” I asked, letting the Wielding grow within me. It burned, the tingles sharp like pinpricks of ice. It was almost as if my limbs had been asleep for far too long and were just now waking up.
“You know nothing. You’re just chained here. You’re nothing.”
“I know that The Gray has a son. Wouldn’t he make his son the second? Push Durlan to third? That would still make you fourth. Always last.”
I expected the slap, but my head still shot back, and my cheek stung as the hand hit my face. I spat out blood, annoyed with myself for letting him hurt me. But I needed him to remain here, distracted, to not notice that I was slowly regaining my Wielding. I needed to keep him from seeing that Braelynn was steadily working on her bindings.
I needed him to focus solely on himself and his plans. If he did, he wouldn’t notice that he was losing.
At least, that was my goal.
“You’re nothing. Just a bitch.”
“Maybe. But there’s a reason The Gray wants me bound. Is he scared of me? Maybe he has to be. It would only make sense. That’s why he continues to keep me alive. He has uses for me. What good are you? The Gray already knows all the secrets that he can ferret out. There’s nothing left for him to uncover. To be worried about. And yet, he keeps you around. For what? To torture me? No, that’s his second’s job. Maybe you’re just here because he doesn’t know what to do with you. He pulled you back from the Maison realm into this shadow dimension. You might be a Whisperer, but there are no secrets left for you to find.”
“I’m going to enjoy when Durlan slices you into a thousand little pieces, and you scream for your king. The one who hasn’t even tried to find you. It seems you weren’t that special, after all. He’s probably already replaced you with that other Wielder. The one with the dark hair and darker eyes. You always were replaceable. Nothing special. You weren’t even the real Spirit Priestess, were you? You are just an abomination. Not strong enough to do anything. To be anything to anyone.”
“Go to hell,” I snapped, not letting the words hurt me but needing to make him think they did. They didn’t. Honestly. I didn’t believe a word Garrik said. He was using whatever fake stories he had to keep me angry, to elevate himself. But it wasn’t going to work. Brae and I would get out of here.
I looked up again as the Whisperer began to pace back and forth, seemingly not paying attention to me.
I met Braelynn’s gaze, and she growled at me, a low sound. I knew it was time.
I tugged on my Wielding, and it sliced through me, causing agonizing pain as it slammed into my pores and ran through my body.
Fire licked my extremities, Water sliced through me, creating steam amongst the shadows. Earth trembled, and Air slid around, pulsating.
Garrik froze. Stared at me wide-eyed.
“How? How did you—?”
“I am the Spirit Priestess. I hold more power in my pinky than you could ever imagine. You might have thought you could harm me, to take everything. But you used lies and deceit to make that happen. You utilized the worst of humanity, the depravity of what you could have had, to try and take everything from me. You’ll never do that again.”
“You’re nothing. Nothing,” he said. But I knew he didn’t believe it. There was too much fear in his eyes.
“You are the one who believes in falsehoods and lies. You’re the one who killed my parents.”
“And they screamed, didn’t they? You couldn’t save them. You weren’t strong enough then, and you aren’t strong enough now. Not in my realm.”
He emphasized the word my, and I narrowed my eyes.
“Is it truly your realm? Or is it that of The Gray, and he just allows you to live here? You have nowhere else to go. No one wants you.”
“No one’s coming for you,” he said quickly. “I don’t know what you think you’re going to accomplish by this stunt you’re trying to pull. You can’t escape. The only reason Easton left before was because of me. It was my plan. What I wanted. He wasn’t strong enough, wasn’t smart enough to realize that he had been played.”
I just shook my head. “Easton always knew there was something wrong with you.”
“Well, his knowledge wasn’t enough to save your parents, was it?”
As he said that, the last tether of my bonds broke, and the shadow chains around me snapped into pieces. I watched as Garrik’s eyes widened with fear.
Part of me relished this, the bit that had tried to take control every time I gained a new element. It wanted to savor his pain. Wanted to force him to feel the agony I did.
The other part of me knew that if I focused too much on making him hurt, I’d be no better than the others who had tried to kill us—the ones who had tried to take everything.
I couldn’t allow that to happen.
Instead, I tamped down my agony, and knew that this was how it was going to be. This was how it would end.
The shadow chains disappeared, turning into smoke. Finally, I was free.
“Are you ready?”
Garrik’s eyes widened as I said that. “Ready for what?”
“I wasn’t talking to you,” I said softly.
Braelynn let out a growl, one so loud I knew she wasn’t a mere house cat anymore.
The shadowed cage disappeared, and Braelynn, now the size of a panther, stood proud next to me, her claws tapping on the cave floor.
“What? How?”
“Once again, I am a Spirit Priestess. This is my Familiar. You killed my parents. You murdered so many. You don’t get to tear another family apart.”
“So…what? You’re going to kill me? I thought you were supposed to be better than that.”
He threw a knife, a dagger I hadn’t seen, but not at me. Not towards my heart.
Instead, the blade shot towards Braelynn, and I slammed out my Earth Wielding, smashing the weapon into pieces as it fell harmlessly to the rocks below.
The Whisperer blinked at me, calmly, then threw another dagger—this time towards me. I used my Air Wielding and flipped the blade. I pushed harder, knowing that a part of me, something deep inside, would die because of this. I didn’t want to kill him, but I couldn’t let him live. Not only because of what he had done to my family but because of what he could do to so many others if he continued on his current path.
Spirit within me slid around my heart and squeezed, and the dagger slammed into Garrik’s chest. The sound of flesh tearing, of blood pouring, filled my ears. It didn’t make any sense. I shouldn’t be able to hear every little nuance of his death, but as the Spirit Wielding slid through me and towards him, I knew that what was happening was for a reason. I needed to remember every action, every death that lay on my soul and on my conscience.
Because I couldn’t become callous. I might now be a warrior, but I couldn’t let death after death make me numb.
Garrik fell to the floor, and Braelynn let out a puff of fire so hot even my Fire Wielding shuddered under its strength. Garrik let out one final breath as the flames slid over him. And then, he was ash. I knew we had to do it. I knew that if we left him here alive, others would know what we had done far sooner than we wanted.
“We need to go,” I said, pushing away my thoughts. “Quickly.” Braelynn gave me a nod, then ran towards the door, her body seeming to get stronger as we moved.
I swallowed hard and followed her, my Wielding at the ready. I wasn’t at full strength yet, and I didn’t think I would ever be within this little pocket Shadow realm. But I at least had something.
I didn’t hear anyone. I didn’t know if anyone else was here. For all I knew, only Garrik, Durlan, and The Gray lived here. And perhaps The Gray and his second were somewhere else.
Brae and I made it to the edge of the cave system, and I looked down, worried.
There was a portal. I could feel it with my Spirit Wielding. I just didn’t know how to use it.
“How are we going to get out of here? The portal could go anywhere, and I don’t know if we have the kind of time we need to figure it out.”
Braelynn looked at me then, and I wondered if she understood what I was saying. This was my best friend, and I missed how she had once been. I missed her laugh, her smile. I missed the way she made me feel. The way she made Luken feel.
Luken.
The Gray’s son.
How were we going to tell him?
And was I supposed to tell him at all?
I didn’t know, but I didn’t have time to worry about that now.
Braelynn looked at me, and suddenly it was if the world around her sparkled and shimmered.
And she shifted.
I staggered back a step.
Oh.
“So that’s why they were laughing at me. You weren’t ready earlier.”
Braelynn looked at me, her body now so much larger than before. She nodded, a knowing look in her eyes. She had known. She had known what a Familiar was and who and what she could be.
But I hadn’t.
As I looked at the black and silver dragon in front of me, her scales glistening even in the dim light, I knew that this was her other form. And she was beautiful.
“You’re a fricking dragon, Braelynn,” I said, laughing. I hadn’t even known I could laugh anymore. But here I was, laughing because my best friend was a fricking dragon.
Braelynn lowered her head, and I swallowed hard. “You want me to ride you?”
Braelynn tilted her head and gave me a look.
“Okay. Apparently, I’m going to ride a dragon out of here.”
I paused.
“My life is truly different, isn’t it?”
I could have sworn she smiled, but I couldn’t tell for sure with her new dragon face. Honestly, I was a little scared.
As I slid on top of Braelynn’s back and held on, I realized that while I might be the Spirit Priestess, my best friend was a dragon.
And that meant more changes were likely coming.
There was a shout behind me, and I noticed Durlan coming, his blade ready.
“Ready?” I called out, and Braelynn nodded before lifting into the air, her large wings spread wide, her body strong.
I knew that she had never flown like this before. I would have known if she had ever turned into her dragon form. Wouldn’t I?
I held on to my best friend as we flew, a scream in my throat at the surrealness of it all.
As we slid through the portal into the Maison realm, the wind in my hair, and my body close to hers as we soared, I knew that this was only the beginning. The beginning of the end, most likely. But we had power. And secrets. We could be the start of change.
I only hoped that was enough.
Chapter Five
Lyric
* * *
I wanted to scream, to let out a shout of both glee and fear with everything flowing through me. Instead, I lowered my body closer to Braelynn’s back, her scales hard yet smooth beneath my palms. Perhaps it just felt soothing? I wasn’t sure, but I held on tightly, not wanting to startle her. I could practically feel her fear mixing with exhilaration. She flew across the skies, high up in the air where we were probably only a spot of darkness to anyone who may see us. And not everybody tended to look up.
We had exited the Shadow realm with relative ease, though I was exhausted, starving, and in pain. Blood had seeped into my clothes, my wounds still not fully healed from Durlan’s ministrations. Braelynn was likely just as exhausted and hungry as I was.
We wouldn’t last long in the sky, and I knew it. But we had to get closer to where Easton and the others were. I couldn’t call it the Obscurité Court anymore because it was now attached to the Lumière Court without the wards. Besides, I didn’t know if there was Lumière or Obscurité at all. All I knew was that I needed to get back to the castle I called home and return to the man I called mine.
From what I could tell, we were somewhere over the southern Spirit territory. Considering we had been taken from the Lumière Court, I wasn’t sure how the geography of the Shadow realm worked.
Perhaps like the Maison realm lay on top of the human realm, the Shadow realm was a pocket that didn’t land on any territory. Maybe it floated on top of it all. Reasonably, it could have pockets within pockets that hid anywhere around the realm itself.
My head hurt. I was thinking far too hard and yet not linearly at all. I pushed thoughts of exactly how all of it worked out of my head and hoped that we were getting closer to our destination. Or at least to a point where we could rest. Braelynn needed it.
“Do you know where you’re going?” I asked, hoping she could hear me over the wind.
She made a purring sound, which was kind of part growl, as well. She wasn’t in her cat form, but rather this newfound dragon form that scared me as much as it excited me. I wanted to take the noise as an agreement. However, since I couldn’t know for sure, I was simply grateful that it looked as if we were about to land.
Again, I thought of how I missed my best friend in her human form. We used to talk all the time, figure out what each other needed. And just listen. But with her in any of her Familiar forms, I couldn’t understand what she wanted or needed. And I always felt like I was two steps behind in making sure she was okay.
After going over a barren mountain, we finally landed on one of the foothills. Leafless trees surrounded us, and everything looked a little sun-bleached. But that was the Spirit territory for you. Everything always had a slight sepia tone, too, as if I had on glasses that I hadn’t cleaned correctly.
Braelynn settled on the ground, her chest heaving. She lowered her head as I moved off her. I moved to the front of her and rubbed my hand between her eyes. She pushed into me, clearly needing the touch.
“You’re beautiful,” I whispered.
Her tongue slipped out, catching my arm, and I laughed at the touch.
“You are. I can’t believe you’re a dragon, and you didn’t tell me. That nobody told me.”
Her eyes danced with merriment, even though I could see the exhaustion in them.
