Page 43 of Of Shadows and Blood

“We’ve passed this before. We need to go this way.” I take a few steps towards a small wooden bridge that crosses a canal. The drum pounds again in my head, causing my steps to drag slightly.

I try to coach myself again, hands gripping the interior of this old cloak. Sawyer’s footsteps falter behind me and when I try to turn back, the dizziness takes over.

It all hits at once.

My vision blackens and I double over, hands coming to my head. Everything lights on fire. My chest and head, the pain, it continues to amplify as waves of agony rush through me. Sawyer runs over to me as I drop to the ground, losing my sense of everything. The wooden bridge gives some leave as my head cracks against it, sending my body writhing with pain. I can’t stop the scream that erupts.

“My head,” I croak out, my body snaking in pain. Blackness pulses at the edge of my eyes as I turn onto my back. A few citizens have crowded over me, Sawyer’s lips tight as his voice fades. He turns to speak to someone in the edges of my view but I can’t hear him.

The sounds of hooves pounding against the earth rumbles in my ear, sounding like an earthquake. The black filters in more, my body tensing.

“We found them!” a voice yells. A guard.

No, no, no, no.

He moves over me, his breastplate showing the celestial crest of Lux.

The fading light of day above me is shielded out by a group of guards now trying to speak to me but I can’t manage to say anything.

My body demands sleep but I fight it again.

I lose feeling of everything at once. Everything but the pain, which successfully consumes my every nerve. The crush of it lances out so sharp and deep that my mind simply goes out, finally resting.

Birds sing.

Little noises of their chirps fade in and out. My fingers brush against cool cotton, their fibers bringing sense to my body. My eyes peel one at a time, the light from a new day only peeking through slits in the curtains.

With focus, I wake some more, my head heavy on my neck. My body is beyond fatigued. This fact is evident as I orient myself ever so slowly. Each movement feels like it is being done under the weight of stone.

I struggle to sit up, a pinch of pain in my temple as I try to remember what happened. I remember the chalice room and Sawyer. We left the castle and fled into the forest.

Veda. We made it to the city. A cess was there.

Tyn. The cloak.

My eyes focus on a black fabric draped on the door of my armoire. I remember more now. We tried to leave but my head. Gods it was so heavy. The guards found me. Found us.

The sound of boots echoes from the kitchen of the cottage. Someone is here.

Sawyer? I almost call out to him.

Breathing is laborious and my spine hurts, most likely from the fall in the city. My body is weak, but I try to sit up more firmly. A shadow falls upon the wall and there is no surprise it’s not Sawyer who enters the room.

Cedric’s onyx boots click against the floor and he sees that I am wake. His eyes immediately examine me from the doorway.

“How am I here?” I groan as he enters. His eyes pierce me and I look away, pretending to be caught up in pain.

Not really pretending, though, am I?

“How?” he asks, anger building on his features. “Answer me this. Why?”

We’re alone and the fear that rushes into me is indescribable. Treason could be a great justification for his choice to end my existence. His shoulders are tense, his hands steadily gripping the sword by his side. A black mist floats out from behind him, curling menacingly.

No, a shadow. I wasn’t imagining it.

Cedric looks positively unhinged in this moment. The red in his eyes blazes brighter than before. I knew this was a risk, only now am I realizing the truth of the consequences of it.

“You know why,” is all I can say on the subject of why. Why do you care? Why can’t I remember anything? Why won’t you let me be?