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“Well, it’s not like blood rock is without its magic, not now we’re home,” I added, wagging my eyebrows in what I knew was a comical way as it made him laugh.
“Why, Miss Draven, what an insatiable creature you are,” Lucius replied with a knowing grin.
But then I paused to really take in the space, and what I saw made my heart ache. Because I had to say that being back here for the first time since leaving all that time ago, it was as if not a single thing had changed. I even found myself getting up from the couch and walking over to where my geek collection was still proudly displayed. In fact, my shrine to geekism seemed to be still very much a part of his everyday life. He hadn’t packed a single thing of mine, but instead chose to continue to surround himself by the reminder that I was still there somewhere in the world. Like I said, the sight warmed my heart. Of course, why I was surprised, I didn’t know. Not after giving me a glimpse of what it could still look like when he had saved me from the Wraith Master’s void. One he had manipulated and created into something safe and comforting.
A comfort that still surrounded me now as I took in the room that had been exactly as it was before I left, and it was nice to be able to walk over to what had been my gift to him. A Lego creation of his private space which was now displayed proudly in a glass box, one that had clearly been made for it, even after my departure.
I couldn’t help but run my finger along it, grinning with happiness. I felt him come up to stand behind me and shift my hair off the back of my neck, making me shiver at his touch. Of course, it was also a lot cooler inside his mountain home and took some getting used to once again.
“Are you cold?” Lucius asked as if sensing my thoughts, doing so with his lips against what was now becoming pebbled skin, as he quickly felt the answer to that question himself.
“Well, I’m not in Hell anymore,” I answered, teasing him.
“Ah yes, that myth, one that, by now, you surely understand as being nothing more than time told fable… well, unless you’re in my father’s realm of course,” he added this last part on a chuckle.
“Why, does it have a central heating system?” At this he laughed again before muttering against my neck,
“Point taken, love.” This was said before he suddenly swept me up into his arms, released his wings, and flew me towards his bedroom, all to the sound of my echoing gasp.
Then as he walked us both towards his bed, he told me,
“Fuck central heating…I know a far better way to warm you up.”
That he most certainly did…
Twice.
* * *
I knewthe moment I’d fallen asleep, because once more, I was back in this Hellish, barren land, one I thought I had forever left behind me. However, looking up to the castle now, one I had once been mentally trapped inside, it looked like all hope for it to have been erased from my memory was fruitless.
I even looked behind me, half expecting to find all those poor souls being made to fight over and over again. Just like I had been forced to watch when I was locked in this land. A sight that only confirmed what the strength of a dark, twisted mind full of greed and insanity combined truly had the power to do.
Destroy.
It could bring an entire nation to its knees as all that was left was endless death to be relived over and over again. All of this by the hands of one man.
This may have been the first of my dreams, but I knew it wouldn’t be the last. Not when I realized the true horror of my future, for I would forever still be linked to this place. Linked despite the Wraith Master’s demise. Despite the dark heart that I’d had no other choice but to consume, I had been a fool to naively believe that would have been enough to break away completely. To believe that my connection had solely been with the imprisoned Wraiths themselves and not this Hellish land and its long dead Master.
Because deep down I knew that it was an internal link that could only be broken in one way. I should have recognized that the moment I entered the prison. A place the Wraith Master had locked them to, and despite liberating them from these glass cages, I knew they were still not free.
Yes, they had willingly fought for me in the War of Souls. But I wanted more than anything else in the world to keep my promise to them. The promise that I would one day set them free. Which was why I knew I would be forever plagued with these nightmares as a reminder for the rest of my life. Each night until the day came when I could finally fulfil that promise…that vow.
I felt a rumbling beneath my feet like thousands of horses all charging in the same direction, and their destination seemed to be me. I turned just in time to see the looming storm clouds in the distance, a grey, ominous wave, blowing closer and closer toward me. A thick fog was also rolling in seemingly from nowhere, making the ground beneath my feet disappear. It started to rumble with greater depth, and I then felt myself started to sink into something I couldn’t see.
That horrifying feeling that I was now being consumed by something lurking in the fog made me start to panic. My pulse hammered against my skin and my pounding heart created a sharp pain within my chest.
I tried to lift up my legs, but it was as if trying to remove my feet from thick mud. Yet I looked down to find no such thing as the disturbances in the fog from my twisting body showed nothing but cracked desert land. Nothing made sense. This feeling, this sinking dread that had gripped me, didn’t make sense.
Nothing did.
Nothing until the fog finally began to roll away from me and when the sinking feeling was up to my knees, only then did I see the cause. Only then did I see what I was actually sinking into.
It was death.
The remains of thousands of warriors were now all around me. I was knee-deep in bodily remains, making me scream out in horror! Surrounded now by the evidence of what the Wraith Master’s army had been forced to kill, despite the injustice of this dead army’s first victory. For nothing could kill a ghost. Because that was all, essentially, the Wraith was. A moving Phantom, haunting in not only its appearance but more so with its engrained memory to kill.
You could lash out at it with everything you had, continuing to do so until your last breath, but each swipe of your blade would do nothing. No weapons could kill it. It was the ultimate army when it was commanded.
