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“We’re lucky that spectres can only target one person at a time,” he murmured, maybe more to himself than to me. “As long as we stick together.”
A scream echoed through the forest. “Reilyn! Help me!”
Though part of my mind told me not to respond, that I already knew it wasn’t Nala, my body responded. I pushed myself out from the thicket, my heart slamming against my ribs.
“Wait!” Araki yelled.
He lunged after me, his arms wrapping around my body. He brought me down, but I twisted away and slammed the palm of my hand against his nose. Pain exploded through my face. He released me with a grunt as blood spurted from his nose. Kicking myself free, I scrambled to my feet.
“Reilyn!” Nala cried, terror in her voice. “Help!”
“Nala!” I shouted back, crashing through the bushes toward her screams. “Hold on! I’m coming.”
Araki called after me. “Reilyn, it’s not her!”
What would he know? I ignored him. Nala’s screams of terror became screams of pain. The darkness closed in around me, a stifling feeling making my lungs burn. I couldn’t see where I was going. The ground beneath me started to grow thicker. My feet squelched through mud. I gritted my teeth and chased. I wasn’t going to let Nala be killed in this place! “Nala!”
“Reilyn!”
I broke through a hedge of thornbushes to find Nala on her knees in a clearing. Her eyes were wide with terror, her mouth hanging open. Blood splattered the pink pinafore, dripping from the hole in her throat. My heart seized, pain ripping through me from the sight. With a cry, I threw myself forward—but even as I did so, something wrapped around me, holding me back. I screamed, fighting against it. A flash of light burned through the night. Nala’s form twisted, her sweet, innocent face changing to a hideous mouth full of sharp teeth and overly huge eyes in a shrivelled head. I drew back in horror as the spell broke. The spectre screamed as Araki swung his enchanted sword at it. It dodged the blow and fled through the forest, disappearing into the darkness. Only after it was gone did I realize I stood on the edge of a pit, sharp stakes planted in the bottom of it. Dozens of skeletons lay about the pit.
Araki lowered his sword, and its golden light faded, leaving us to pitch black. His arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me back from the pit's edge. I didn’t have the strength to fight Araki as images of Nala with her throat torn out flashedbefore me. Even though I knew it wasn’t real, the pain was. I felt like I was being torn in two, the part of me that was logical, telling me Nala was alive, warring against the part that wanted to die with her. Araki turned me, holding my head, and pressed my face into his warm chest. He held me tightly, whether comforting or preventing me from diving into the pit and killing us both, I didn’t know.
“It’s alright,” Araki whispered in my ear, his deep voice comforting.
I was shaking. I couldn’t make myself stop.
“It’s not real,” he told me.
“I know.” But it helped to hear it from another person.
Araki drew me further away from the pit. I didn’t know how he could see where we were going or if he even could. With my face still buried in his chest, I could see nothing. I needed to pull away, but right then, I couldn’t remember the reason why. After a little while, Araki stopped, and we stood there, his arms around me. The warmth of his body seeped into mine, making me realize just how cold I was. Even with his doublet, I was chilled to the bone. How could he still have so much warmth when his arms only had the thin tunic covering them?
“We need a fire,” Araki said.
Irritation spiked through me. Clearly, he didn’t need one. So he was saying it because of me. He thought that I was too weak to deal with a little chill.
“We do not need a fire,” I countered. I pulled myself back from Araki. His eyes cast a pale violet glow, but not enough for me to see his face. “If we build a fire we’ll draw every creature in the forest to our location.”
“You’re shivering.”
“I’ll be fine.” I stubbornly replied.
Araki stared down at me for a long time before he nodded. I could only tell from the movement of his glowing eyes, though I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to know. The light from the fungi had wholly died away and in its leave darkness had taken place.
“We’ll have to make our camp here,” Araki released me.
My shivers increased, and I wrapped my arms around myself, unwilling to admit I missed his warmth. We settled on the ground. It was damp, but after foraging around, I managed to find enough plants to build myself a small nest to protect me from the cold ground. The confusion I’d been fighting came back stronger.
Who was Araki Darinell, really?
The man who prayed for the Cupiditas and saved me from the spectre wasn’t the cruel, heartless Usurper who stole magic and killed anyone who dared oppose him. When I made him promise not to harm the forest, I hadn’t expected he could, but I still expected him to try. With everything I knew about him, he would have at least attempted to leech the magic from the forest, promise or no promise. And there was more. The Cupiditas attack was so quick he didn’t have time to remove the spell binding us. He’d pushed me out of the way because if I died, he’d die too—or at least, that’s what I told myself. But with the spectre, he had plenty of time to release the spell and let me die.
He was evil… Right? The Nightshade had told me so. Priestess Opaline and Master had often told me of his evil deeds. It was his doing that my parents were dead. He had stolenmy crown, and he would have killed me had the Nightshade not rescued me. So why did he seem so… good? The questions pressed on the tip of my tongue as I curled into my bed of leaves. A tumult of emotions stirred inside me, the uncertainty quite unfamiliar to me that I wasn’t sure how to deal with. A light, misting rain began to drip from the branches above us. I groaned and pulled the doublet over my head. I didn’t need this, didn’t need any of this. I just wanted answers. But I didn’t dare break my silence to ask them. How would I know he’d tell me the truth?
A Light in the Dark
Reilyn
