“This isn’t funny, Damien. I was terrified, I—“
My eyebrows rose. “You what?”
She looked away, clearing her throat and dusting off her hands before standing. “I’m just glad I didn’t have to explain your death to Eva, that’s all.”
I felt the shift between us as she pulled away, carefully crafting the mask of indifference she often slipped behind when she felt us drifting too close. Though I wanted to lie back down on the floor, the stone like ice on my tender flesh, I stood on shaky legs and moved to the cot in the corner. “Well, let’s see if it worked or not.”
“Oh,” she paused, chewing on her lip. “We don’t have to do that now. Shouldn’t you—I don’t know—rest or something?
I smirked. “As long as you promise to never pour that concoction down my throat again, I’ll be okay.”
Renai smacked my arm. “It’s a bit too soon to be joking about that. You didn’t see yourself, Damien. You’d gone all pale and sweaty. You were shaking all over, and burning up. And then you wouldn’t wake up. I thought it was going to be a repeat of last time, and I got scared.”
I held out my hands, trying not to wince. My body was sore, as if it’d taken a severe beating, but I didn’t want her to know that. “Look at me. I’m okay, I promise. Ask me something,”
She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. “What do you know of Lachlan’s plans?”
My mind whirled. Images of maps and battlements flashed before my mind. “He plans to attack Helia first. The smaller camps and attacks to the west are ploys to get our troops out. And there’s something else, something I can’t quite place.” I blinked, unsure of how I knew that, but something told me I’d heard it before.
“Holy shit,” she breathed.
More and more the images bombarded my mind, faster than I could comprehend. I bent forward, a blinding pain behind my eyes causing me to cry out as I gripped my head. The closest outlying towns in the east came into focus; a dark fog drifted along the ground and seeped into homes and shops until it swallowed everything. Screams of terror sounded from inside, and I couldn’t see anything, but I sensed their rising panic until everything came to a jarring stop.
As it cleared, every villager’s eyes were clouded with malice. They trudged out onto the streets, grabbing anything they could use as a weapon. Then, one by one, they began the trek to Helia, joining up with The Horde and assimilating flawlessly to their ranks.
A Helian Dahlia bloomed under the gray light of dawn. It was a rare plant that only came to maturity for one day a year, typically toward the end of summer. The picture shifted focus, a throng of black was approaching the eastern side of the city. Their chants reached my ears as people screamed from inside the city.
“Damien?” Renai placed her hand on my back, rubbing in small, soothing circles. It felt as though my head was being cleaved in two. There was nothing I could do but let it happen, as I watched every terrible thing I’d done. And then the visions switched as Helia went up in flames. Lachlan stood by, watching the terror unfold before him. Everyone I knew was on their knees before him, until one-by-one, he watched them all burn.
Then I saw the face of someone we all trusted and loved; how her eyes bled to black and as she stared at herself in the mirror and began recounting the events of the day. Lachlan stood behind her as nothing more than a phantom, his incorporeal fingers pressed into her skull as she divulged information to him.
“My gods,” I choked out, before another vision slammed into me. She stood at the back of every room, every meeting, lending a helping hand wherever she could. Her reach was far greater than anyone else, because no one would expect her to be the spy in our midst. I didn’t even know if she knew it herself, but somehow she was giving every intimate detail she’d learned to our enemy.
“Briar,” I breathed. “He’s using Briar for information–controlling her mind from afar. He knows everything–every minute detail of our lives and what makes us tick. I don’t know how long he’s been in her mind, maybe when he was parading around as my father, but she’s been compromised.” My eyes met Renai’s, which had grown to twice their normal size. A sense of urgency washed over me, and I knew our time was running out quickly. “He’s coming, Renai,” I managed. “When the Helian Dahlia blooms, The Horde will be upon us, and he is looking to burn Helia to the ground for his own twisted pleasure. He’s using our own people against us, turning them into mindless souls engineered to do his bidding.”
And then the vision returned. I saw Renai, her beautiful face broken and battered as it came into focus. Tears streamed down her face as she looked up at a blurred figure. Muffled, pleading reached my ears as she fought against her restraints.
I was thrown into the middle, screaming against invisible bonds that held me in place as a blade was placed against her neck. In one swing, it was over. The ashes consumed me until I could not breathe, until they coated my throat and all I could taste were the flakes of burning flesh.
I couldn’t lose her, couldn’t let her run into this war without me. Lachlan would take no prisoners. He would kill everyone and everything in his path just because he could.
She stood up, pacing in front of me as she chewed on her nails. “I have to go report this,” she said. “Gods, if that is true…” she trailed off, looking back at me. “Are you sure, Damien? If this is a trick—”
“I’ve seen it,” I panted. “Unless he’s shown me false futures, but I can feel it, Renai.” She moved, striding toward the door, but I called out for her. “Wait! Don’t go. You can’t go into that war, siren. If you do, you will die.”
Her body halted, a small shudder working its way through her body. Our eyes met, and a tremor ran through my body, nearly enough to bring me to my knees. “Do not call me that,” she whispered, her voice low. “Not here. Not now.”
“Why?” I shot back. “Because you’re ashamed of me? Of what we did?”
She laughed, one born of vicious intent. “It wasone time. And you hold no sway over what I can and cannot do. I was anointed as a captain, and it is my duty to protect these lands and these people. You’re nothing, Damien, simply a means to an end.”
“Am I only convenient enough to fuck when Kalen is not around? Is that why you came to me last night?” Voicing what had been eating away at me since the night before came spilling out of me. I’d been unable to sleep, thinking about how she wouldn’t ever want me more than she wanted Kalen. I fought to keep hold of my anger, the pain of her suddenly callous attitude stung more than I cared to admit. Because I knew the truth about us, knew it in my fucking soul. It would kill her.
“He’s a better lover than you’ll ever be,” she hissed, but there was an edge of dishonesty in her voice.
“Does he know you love him?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
“What?”
