Page 49

Alexander’s POV

Time and space stopped as I lay crumpled along the grain of the wood beneath me. I couldn’t even allow myself the relief of squirming through the pain as it locked into every joint, lulling me unresponsive. It was like life itself was being deprived from this physical form, replaced with a new fever. The cool air swirling around me brought no relief as it slipped through my curls, inching over every stretch of skin. But nothing could reach me as every muscle lit with a trillion stings shooting through my veins.

Consciousness slipped further from reality with each passing moment.

Sleep even tried to have its way; it pressed in every direction, wanting to dull the agony that dared to consume me. There was no pleading for mercy from it, and worse, I didn’t think I could. An instinct so primal was reshaping me from the inside out, and it didn’t want my fear. It wanted submission. Its claws burrowed deeper as the will to fight it off became laughable. I wanted to be released from its grip more than life itself. For one brief second, a thin line of peace slid beneath my ribs; it was so soft and comforting before it vanished, leaving me breathless.

A gasp tore through the heaviness in my lung, easing a fraction opening in panic. When serenity didn’t return, tears spilled down my temples as every fiber in me writhed.

As soon as the heaviness in my lids gave way, blinding whiteness pierced through each eye. There was no way to describe how unbearable it was. Rough fingertips gently raked through my curls, attempting to comfort the tremor that seized me. Draco’s presence was grounding as another swell of pain took hold. I struggled to hold myself together as a scream tore from the depths of my soul. If hell were possible on earth, then this was it, and I wanted to die. I just needed it to stop. Sensing the surge in my veins, his other hand brushed the sweat from my brow, and a thumb delicately wiped away tears from my cheek. As sweet as the gesture was, it pulled another sob loose.

I had half the mind to speak, but a scratchy dryness at the base of my throat stopped me. Even if I tried, only another sob would come. If anything, it would have been, ‘Help me.’ Even with Draco by my side, trying to calm me, it felt isolating. There was no way to put it into words. It was like being stabbed from every direction with no mercy in sight.

Blinking hard, I tried to break through the white fog in my vision. It was thick, almost like sleep left in the eyes. Every flutter was heavy as the haze faded away like fog from a lens. It drifted from the room, and settled into ivory and crimson. The chair I was once sitting in rested at the side of me with its legs up, and Draco’s deep oak desk loomed just beyond my feet. A strange sensation rang familiar throughout each nerve ending. I was frozen in time against the rigid, cool wood. My thoughts played tricks as a dark figure loomed in my periphery. A shapeless obsidian silhouette lingered in the corner. I could feel it watching me, studying at first, before it dared to glide forward.

As it crept closer, my heart hammered through me. Each pound drowned out everything until it was all I could focus on. It consumed me. If there were a way to run, I would have chosen that. Because this felt like being locked in a nightmare. Valentina flashed through my mind as I tried to grasp onto the smallest relief. If she were here, she’d know what to do. She’d be able to calm me so I could be bigger than that moment, but I felt out of control. Nothing I did, not even Val, could make this go away.

Black mist formed an outline of a body as it finally hovered above me, scentless. The features that should have been its face were formless and voided as it stared down. The air around its being radiated that cool, familiar sensation from the forest, wind pulsing from its core into my soul. The quietness stretched as the flames in my body surged toward their peak. It studied my face in silence, each motion deliberate as it bent down so we were face to face.

Our gazes met, sending a serene buzz through me. The fire that had balled into a knot in my body released a fraction under its own weight. In an inexplicable moment, I just knew it was a part of me. I didn’t know what part of it was mine, but I just knew it was waiting to be noticed. The void where its eyes should have been seemed to squint as recognition spread across my features. Time dragged as its presence numbed the fire in my limbs. My line of thinking became almost hyper-focused on the thought of its touch. I craved it. A part of me, maybe a braver part, knew it would relieve me. That it would help me in a way Lord Draco couldn’t.

Calm washed over every limb as the thought looped in my mind. No more fear lingered inside me as I called out in my head. “Do it. Just touch me already, get it over with.” I thought. Though it sounded crazy, it could hear me, but its hazy limb stretched from its side, reaching out to me.

No ounce of panic claimed me, as it caressed my cheek with the lightest touch. It was like when the wind held me the first day, reverent. Its shadowed fingers moved like they remembered me. It studied my features with focus, as if time had been lost between us. The touch was whole, warm, and brimming with relief. Before I could talk myself into it being dangerous, I leaned into it instinctively.

Its silken hand withdrew from my cheek, guiding a chilled path down my throat. The sensitive skin beneath my clothes prickled with goosebumps and tension at the lightest touch. Trailing down my collarbone, it slipped its fingers to the middle of my ribs, through the slits of my button-up. Its touch was icy yet carried solid weight. It was gentle at first, until it combed deeper within me. Harsh as it was, comfort still spilled from its touch, easing the heat inside my muscles. Without warning, its claws dug into the soft flesh between my ribs, tearing the tunic apart as the skin split. I had hoped that this was all it would put me through.

Brilliant white and blue light tore from my chest, spilling across the room in a heated flare. It clawed through more than just flesh as it dug deeper. It was as if it were searching for something that wasn’t physical but spiritual. Arching my back off the wooden floorboards I braced myself as a part of my soul was ripped free of solid form. A violent pull of air breached my lungs as I was yanked into oblivion. There was no way to describe it—just a blink, not death, but a middle ground.

A figure of myself was at my feet, curled in a fetal position on the floor, helpless to the world around me. It was as if I were separated from my twin in my physical form. A scream clawed out of the version of me on the ground, and it bounced around the room. It wasn’t as if I couldn’t feel the vibration of his lungs as he pulled in a gasp; I did. Furious heat coiled in both of our veins, but the version I was experiencing was far less painful. It was a manageable fever that paled my physical torture.

The room was empty besides my own body frozen in pain, another cry tearing from my mouth. Draco was nowhere in sight, but I could feel his presence beside me now, against my side. His phantom fingers raked through my curls, trying to soothe the version of me under the grip of agony. His voice tumbled into my ear, thin as thread. “This too will pass.”

As I stood frozen in my own disbelief, a powerful force yanked me by the collar of my coat away from the scene. Balling my fists at the intrusion, my body jerked forward, pivoting to face them. Everything stilled inside me as I took the shadow in. “What do you want with me?” I demanded. There was no response to my words, just action with no fear of consequence. It gripped my arm and pulled. The heel of my boots slid against the grain of oak as I pressed my weight into it, trying to break free. It was no use because it was stronger.

With unprecedented speed, its free hand stretched in front of us, claws tearing into the world. Space itself split wide, birthing an unnatural rip before us. It glowed deep, electric indigo as raw energy peeled away from matter itself. Heat licked through the room from the divided energy, brushing my cheeks with pulsating warmth.

The mist had no hesitation in its body as soon as it was wide enough for us both, he snatched me forward, hauling us both through the window of light. There was no way to describe passing through it, but time and the universe moving in all directions, yet standing still at once. It had me breathless, telling myself that this was all a dream that I’d wake up from.

Yet it didn’t feel like any I’d ever had before.

Before my feet found solid ground, the atmosphere twisted around us in a swirl of memories I never had. Images of children, women, and men I never knew were present. They were dressed in an elegance I couldn’t even grasp in one scene and the next they were stained in blood. Flashes of a sky buried in gray rolled through the realm, they rolled in like a storm, casting everything into bleakness. So many images, so many things I couldn’t even put together ran through me before the world was stilled.

The bursts of color faded, leaving behind a dim room lit by a golden chandelier above. Confusion and disorientation crept through each one of my thoughts as my eyes adjusted to the palace. There was something so familiar about the fairytale setting that sank in the depths of my gut. I couldn’t place why I felt like I’d been there before in some version of my past. What I did know was that I was no longer in Lord Draco’s impressive estate. It now felt modest compared to this castle. The interior alone was grander in every way, its elegance unmistakable.

The chandelier I’d noticed earlier was encrusted with diamonds. It swung softly in the center of the room, illuminating the hall in full. Its crystals fractured the light into small rainbows with every whisper of motion. From the velvet curtains to the floral arrangements, the palette remained: regal golds and rich, somber blues.

My gaze swept from the towering ceilings down to the gleaming marble floors. The palace rose three stories high and stretched well over three hundred feet. Every wall bore hand-oiled paintings; there were battles, rulers, scenes of blood and glory.

One caught my attention more than the others on the far end of the hall. It stood under a thick curtain that bore a family crest. Framed in gold was the Queen on the left and a King at her side. Her snow-white hair rivaled the striking blue of her eyes. They were as clear as water, and the artist was able to capture a fierceness in them that had even my heart racing. She wore garments that felt almost sacred, covered from throat to wrist, but it fit her so well. And beside him, with an arm around her waist, stood a tall, broody man with deep brown hair that could pass for black. His attire wasn’t as grand as the woman's, but his brown eyes grounded them both from mythical to something humane.

Where paintings didn’t hang, swords and odd trinkets took their place.

I focused just above the painting on the banner above it. In the center of the indigo fabric bloomed a single flower crowned in gold, surrounded by a wreath tapering into a V of twining vines and blossoms. Below, stitched in gold thread was one word, and that was Eari.

The grandeur faded from my system, replaced by a cold stillness. A voice in my head told me this was the place that had been whispered to me. It was impossible. How could I be transported to another kingdom at the blink of an eye? And worse, it didn’t feel unfamiliar to me; it felt like I could have walked these halls a thousand times before. It was almost like how I felt in Ash Town, complete. My ego rejected it. My home was with Martha.

The shadowed figure glided in front of me, stopping so that my breath blew through it. Silence stretched between us as it watched me. There was patience beneath it, I could sense it in every part of my body as I gathered myself. It only awarded me a brief moment of recollection before giving a small nod towards the stairwell. My feet hesitated as it turned toward the stairs, trailing a ribbon of dark fog behind it when I didn’t follow.