Page 42 of Kingdom Of Veil And Vow

I lunge forward as he walks towards the room, my sharp barks of warning bouncing off of his back. He enters, and Commander Miles exits, shutting the door with the deafening click of a lock. Saliva drips from my maw, every part of me anxious to attack as the commander leans his back against the door, drawing a dagger from the sheath at his thigh. He’s afraid of me in this form. I peel my lips back to show my teeth again, but then Immie screams.

It rings louder than it did before, bleeding through the door. The walls. Skating over me in an assault that forces the muscles in my back to tense. I shake again, but there is no escaping it. It’s everywhere. She gasps, and then I hear her sob, her breaths heaving in and out at a rate that my own attempt to match.

“Does it bother you?” the commander asks, pushing himself upright. He takes tentative steps my way, watching the frantic way I pace.

My mouth waters again at the prospect of piercing my teeth into his flesh. Shredding him apart. Kill. Kill. Kill.

“Can you hear her screams over here? I assume your hearing is at least as good as a normal fox’s.” He slides a thumb down the hilt of his dagger, and I shiver at the sound of his skin against the metal. “You look like you’re in distress, little kit. Perhaps you need a rough hand to grab you by your scruff and put you back in your place. Isn’t that how dominance is established?”

My vision blurs as my heart races. Click. Click. Click. Licking my lips, I turn and walk three paces before turning and walking three more. Back and forth. Back and forth. Little kit. Immie screams again. The commander laughs, his voice so much closer. His scent is everywhere. Sour. Sweaty and earthy.

Little kit. A scream. A sob. A howl.

My heart flutters in my chest, caged beneath my ribs. Just as I am caged. Because first, I was Siyala, child of a father affected by the blight. One who slowly went mad, leaving my mother to channel her grief into finding ways to help him. Into grasping on to false hopes that he would ever return to the man she once knew. Then I was little kit, prey to a man who only pretended to help. Who groomed me into thinking that the attention he showed me was better than nothing at all. Who stole what was never offered to him. Then I was Bella, fox in the tower. Locked within a stone prison, unable to help the one person who loved me without boundary. Forced to hide while the unspeakable was done to her.

I flex my paws against the ground. The commander’s voice dances around me, more taunts and jeers and promises of retribution. Little kit. Little kit. Little kit. Immie groans in pain. Pink fabric tied to a beam. Rough hands pinning my hips. Pain. I’m caged. Caged. Caged.

Metal screeches, and my heart is pounding as I back away from the cell door. Away from the man flipping a dagger, his smile promising that the punishment he dreams about will be far worse than anything that blade could do. I hit a wall. Or maybe it’s the cot, but I can’t press any farther back, and I’m still caged, and it will never be any different. This will always be my life. Warmth surges up my neck, and my vision flashes light blue, and all I can hear are Immie’s screams. Rhea’s. My own. Warmth and light and then—

Nothing.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Siyala

Jasmine. The delicate scent washes over me in a subtle wave, calm and sweet and pure. How strange it is to smell it so strongly here in the dungeon. I force my eyes open, a headache pulsing just behind them. There is a filmy haze over my sight at first, one filled with bright twinkling lights. I blink, and the lights grow larger, the haze sliding out of the way as if someone has removed a veil. Pressing a hand down, I startle at the lack of feeling beneath my palm, then outright gasp when I look down to reveal… nothing. There is nothing beneath me, nothing surrounding me. As if I’m just floating in the air.

“Gods above,” I whisper. My head turns to take in my surroundings. Stars and endless night sky and something more… something colorful that swirls high above me. A chill breaks out over my skin, and it’s then I realize that I’m in my mortal form. And that I’m naked. Great. Just great.

At least this is a dream, but if I have actually shifted back in the cell, then my clothes will be ruined. The memory of Commander Miles watching over me makes my skin crawl, and as I push myself up to sit and hug my knees into my chest, I can only hope that Immie has made it out of that torture room alright.

“She is well now.” The voice from behind startles me, my spine straightening as my magic surges. Looking over my shoulder, I shove the loose strands of hair away from my face before running my hand down it, sure that I am dreaming. “And this is no dream.”

“Rhea?”

“No, I’m afraid not.” She smiles, and the shape of it is so much like Rhea’s that my throat constricts. The same sweeping honey-golden strands frame her face, her eyes a shade of green that remind me of spring. She walks closer, her bare feet pressing into darkness while a dress of pure black white silk ripples over her legs. “My name is Selene.” She tilts her head, and glitter sparkles around the crown of it.

Did I hit my head? Was I slipped a hallucinogenic through my food? Selene is not a name I’ve heard before, at least no one I can recall.

“It is alright. You are not meant to know who I am.” She pauses and glances upwards. “You are not meant to be here at all.” She smiles, and it reminds me of a feline predator. Cunning and sharp. “It seems fate has made sure there is balance.”

There is a rumble of sound. Something that immediately draws my animal towards the surface, making it press against my skin while the brilliant silver and white stars flicker around me. Selene’s smile grows, though she digs her fingers into the fabric of her dress.

“There isn’t much time,” she says, returning her gaze to my own.

“Time for what?” I ask, still confused on how my mind might have conjured such a place.

Selene quickly closes the distance between us and drops to her knees, close enough that I can see the smooth planes of her beautiful face. But where Rhea has faint freckles that dot her skin, truly only visible in summer or in the right light, Selene’s skin is bare of all but a soft pink flush to her lips. But those eyes… Those are Rhea’s eyes. Bright and keen. “I’m so grateful that she had you,” she whispers, her grin wobbling as those piercing eyes fill with tears. “She will be so happy to see you again. When the time is right. Can you promise me something, Siyala Hoku?”

“I— Yes?” The stars flicker again, and the hair rises on the back of my neck.

Selene reaches her hand out for mine and squeezes it. “There will come a time when Rhea will need your help. Remind her of your love and that she is never alone. Remind her”—she pauses, swallowing roughly as a tear rolls down her cheek—“that she is made for incredible things.” Those familiar eyes bounce back and forth as they look at mine. “Please.”

“Okay,” I promise, unsure of what I’m even agreeing to do but unable to tell Selene no.

“It is time to go.” Her hand moves to cup the side of my face, thumb brushing my cheek. “Goodbye, Siyala.”

My surroundings shudder, winking in and out of existence as I’m pulled by a weight tethered to my stomach. Stars streak past me as I fall, my hair whipping around my face. The sensation lasts seconds and then minutes and then…

I gasp, launching upright so fast that my head swims. Bracing myself against the hard stone beneath me, I drag air in one breath at a time, the telltale scents of the dungeon firmly placing me back in the present. My head hangs low as my magic retreats slowly from my limbs and back towards that inner reserve. When something tickles my back, my eyes shoot open, another rush of breath fluttering past my lips as I arch my neck to look behind me. But it’s just my hair. My hair. Relief sinks deeply into my bones. I am mortal again.