54. Dax
Chapter fifty-four
Osiris eagerly takes the lead into the caves. Raelle looks over her shoulder, concern furrowing her brow, but she follows behind him, leading me by our joined hands. I take up the back of the line so I can keep an eye on both of them. The tunnels that were revealed to us, once lit by the glowing white magic, have now darkened to pitch, and the further we travel, the more rampant my heart beats.
Regardless of the feeling Raelle’s magic is giving her, we don’t truly know what this tunnel is leading us to. What the chamber is going to hold other than the stones Osiris is so adamant about retrieving. The only reassurance I have is the king’s bond he offered in place of his word. The bond, at least I know, is more binding, but that doesn't mean he can't break it.
“Osiris, don’t go too fast; we have to stay together,” I growl out as the prince begins to pick up pace creating a gap between us. We walk silently for what feels like hours, and no matter how much I try, I can't seem to block out the memories of being locked in the prison as nothing but a shadow trapped in the dark.
“Do you feel the magic?” Raelle whispers as she looks back at me again, snapping me out of my own mind, and I nod. The sense of power in the air is so oppressive it makes it difficult to breathe. I think anyone would be able to feel its presence.
As we continue through the labyrinth, the source of where the magic is coming from becomes more and more evident. The tight tunnels open up to corridors of echoing darkness. The walls become illuminated by glittering silver, like walking through the night sky. The stars watching as we enter their realm.
Osiris stops suddenly, his lip curling back with a growl. Raelle slows, and I pull her back into my chest as we slowly approach Osiris, where he has seemingly been halted by an outside force. His hand is outstretched and frozen in place, and sparks of white are steadily zapping his skin as he grunts, pushing forward.
“Step away, prince.” Raelle’s voice is loud in comparison to the deafening silence and snaps Osiris from his mission to advance. He staggers back, rubbing his hands together at the center of his chest. His sneer still in place, but much softer now as he looks down at my queen. She turns in my arms, pressing her hand to my cheek, and my brows dip as she tries to pull away.
“What are you doing? The magic… The barrier—it was hurting him.” I hiss as I pull her back to me.
“Dax, don’t you hear it?” Her eyes widen as she looks around the cavernous space we stand in, and I follow her gaze. I don’t hear anything. Nothing but my own pulse in my ears, thinking about her walking away from me again. I shake my head as I continue to pull her to me, and she resists. “Trust me.” My jaw clenches as I fight my instincts to keep her protected, knowing that I need to trust and support her decisions.
When I finally relent, she reaches up on her tiptoes and presses a kiss to my lips. My eyes automatically close as I breathe her in and push my fingers into her hair at the base of her skull. When she steps away, I instantly miss her warmth and watch her as she presses her hand to Osiris’s shoulder, offering a silent boost of strength, and then moves to the barrier. As soon as she approaches it, the magic wrinkles like ripples in a mirrored lake when disturbed, but instead of obscuring the image like a lake surface, the door that it was hiding is revealed.
The door itself is crafted of pure onyx stone glistening in the low, star-like light around us. Its surface is smooth other than the jagged center, and the more the foggy magic clears, the more it resembles the scales of a dragon.
“This is it. The chamber.” Osiris tries to step forward again, but a whistling wind snaps through between us and Raelle. My vision is taken from me the moment the wind hits us and Raelle— is gone . We are left with nothing but the sound of my piercing scream as I throw myself at the door that swallowed her whole. Be damned with the consequences. I don't care if the magic attacks me; she cannot be taken from me again.
“RAELLE!” I slam my shoulder into the door, but it doesn’t budge; there is no sound from the other side and no magic barrier keeping us away from it any longer. “FUCK!” I curse as my knuckles are busted and split against the hard stone. Spinning on my heel, I turn my rage on the prince.
“This is your fault!” I bellow, curling my hands in his leathers and pulling him into me so we are facing chest to chest.
“Do you know nothing of history? Has Aldramani not kept their highborn families educated with the magic of the realms?” He seethes, looking between my fist in his clothing and my face.
“What of history tells about my wife disappearing through a chamber door that never opened? The only history that is happening now is the history I’m making—When I break the king’s bond we forged and kill you with my bare hands for leading us to this trap.” I ground out with eyes narrowed.
“Think about what you are saying, Dax. Think about what this chamber is and why it’s kept the way it is! Don’t let your temper get the best of you. Open yourself up— feel it. ” Osiris says with his lips curled back over his teeth.
I growl as I push him away from me and begin pacing in front of the door. We don’t have time for standing around and fucking history lessons. I think about what I know of the chamber, and I have to admit it isn’t much. With a growl of frustration, I turn to face the prince.
“Clearly, you know more than I do in this situation. I guess I am forced to trust you. Tell me, what is happening? And while you’re at it, tell me why this was not mentioned as part of the plan?” I demand answers from him. I can hear my own teeth creaking with how hard I clench my jaw through the questioning. As my anger tries to become its own entity.
“The door only allows the most pure and royal Aldramani blood to enter the chamber. Between the three of us, even though you are king, that right belongs to Raelle.” He says as he sheathes his sword in its scabbard. The hiss of metal on metal drags my attention to the motion.
“Fine, so we will w—” My words are cut off by a howling voice coming from faraway. My face scrunches up as I try to both pin the direction it is coming from and how the voice sounds familiar in some way…
“ Open the gates and restore what was; when the moon has ascended and the unkindness is full, only then will true power unfold.” The words are a whisper on the wind, “A stone of white weeps red, and what has fallen will rise again.” They repeat over and over, beginning with barely a brush on my ears and getting stronger with the wind they travel on.
“We have to go, Dax.” Osiris looks between me and the exit that has revealed itself through the whipping wind blowing through the tunnel.
“I’m not leaving her here.” I hold my ground, though the power of which the wind blows intensifies with my words. “Raelle!”
“This is her mission, Dax. We can serve her better out there. The battle is being raged. Something is happening with Bracarva. I feel her pain. We need to go topside and fight! That is where our battle lies.” His hand wraps at his side, where I know his bond mark with Raelle is—the mirror of hers. “Trust the gods. Trust that fate is on our side.”
“Why should I trust the gods when all they have ever done is take !?” Flashes of everything the gods have taken from me blind me. Their faces, the sound of their laughs, their cries—the painful last words I ever heard come from them replay with vivid clarity, and I don’t blink out of the clutches of sorrow until a firm hand clamps down on my shoulder, shaking me out of it.
“Because they have given too, it’s just easier to listen to the pain when it always seems the loudest.” Moisture fills my eyes as I look up from my clenched hands. Knowing that what he’s saying has a ring of truth to it, but I say nothing.
Clearing my throat, I turn to face the onyx door, raising my hand and placing my palm flat on the stone surface, and close my eyes. A tingle runs over my bond mark, and when I open my eyes, I sigh as the feeling of her essence engulfs me. I don’t feel anything but her presence, but that alone is enough of a sign of goodwill between me and the gods.
“Keep her safe, or even the gods won’t be safe from the darkness I will bring down on the realm.” I growl the promise under my breath. I take a deep breath, balling my fist on the door, and turn on my heel, pushing past Osiris and heading for the exit that will lead us to the war we are apparently meant to fight instead.
Soren better hope it’s not me he finds as his opponent because I have a scorching fury building in my veins and it won’t take much else to trigger an eruption.
The sun is hovering over the horizon when we surface on the other side of the caves. We are further up from where the regime fights, but it will be no time at all until they reach this far into the ruins. We were in the caves much longer than I thought, but there is no way for me to know if it's the night that is gone or if it's the morning once again greeting us with its rude awakening.
There is no way for me to know how we are doing or if fate has once again taken more from me. I won’t accept anything until I lay eyes on all of them. The snow has accumulated on the ground here, casting the world in a haze of white and gray, making it all the more difficult to see. I squint to try to make out the faces of the men and women who are fighting in the group I approach.
I take a glance behind me and see Osiris climbing along one of the embankments along where the caves meet the ruins. When he disappears into a shadowy section of the cliffs, I narrow my eyes on him, but I’m pulled from my concern immediately when I see my brother in combat with two other Fae. I don’t look back as I decide whatever Osiris is doing is of no concern to me in this moment. I have to believe he wouldn’t break the king’s bond, and my brother needs me. I have to believe that Raelle is ok, and this plan isn’t the end.
Unsheathing the sword from my hip, the runes glint in the reflected light, almost looking as though they are lit from within, and power ripples in a pulse over the battlefield. Like a magical key, it seems to unlock some sort of hidden energy, igniting a powerful magic to come alive in the ruins. It only lasts a second, but multiple faces turn to face the source. Seemingly all at once those same Fae who turned toward me, charge . I am thrust into battle the moment I reveal the blade that I now wield. As though the blade itself calls for worthiness.
Pivoting and swinging my way through the fray of bodies, I bathe myself red in the blood of Fae that I wish I didn’t have to sacrifice. More blood on my conscience because of Soren, but I will rule with Raelle as a better man because of it. I never want my people to have to live through another day where they are more afraid of their future than they are happy to live it.
Every opponent I face, I offer them a choice, and each time they don’t take it, I cut them down without a second thought. Their lives are lost to a choice that fate has given them, and they choose wrong every time. Not once have they changed course, and it makes me wonder what Soren has over them.
Looking up, I see that the sun is just sinking below the horizon, its diminishing glow barely lighting the sky a fading purple through the clouds and reflection of the snow on the ground. A middle ground between day and night, where everything is shades of gray.
The dragon roars as it dips down, menacing fire erupting from its dangerous throat. The fire engulfs both the land and the Fae, which aim their magic at it, trying to bring it out of the sky. Blood and gore cover everything.
Lifting my sword, I continue my battle as I try to get closer to my brother, and as I do, I see more of my family. Maki and Kait fight nearby; Ambriel climbs to the top of a dilapidated small ruin to get higher ground, and Cano fights with reckless abandon. Blood coats our weapons and every inch of our skin. I swipe it from my eyes as I hear a roared battle cry— Trent. He lunges forward, and sinks his sword into a body—a deadly blow.
His hair falling into his eyes, and then I look up to see Maki. He’s running toward us and yells something in my direction, but I can’t hear him over the disarray. The snow beneath our feet is now a muddled brown mess with blood and dirt mixing into a horrific painting at our feet.
A deep growl comes from behind me as I lock eyes on my brother, who is too far away for me to stop the attack that is imminent. I scream for Trent and hear Ambriel’s scream echo my own—Trent spins and our eyes clash as I sprint for him.
Everything happens in slow motion. One minute I'm fighting Fae, and the next I'm running to save the only sibling I have left. Spit flies from my mouth as I rip the muscles in my throat, screaming for him. I watch him fight off one Fae, but another angles their blade to squire him in the back. My shadows pulse from me in a torrent of darkness, blacking out everything in my line of sight; their only command, to kill the one who wields the blade, aimed to take my brother’s life.
A cry of pain comes from in front of me within the darkness, and as my brother comes into view, slamming to the ground a moment later. Confusion strikes me in the chest when I see Trent roll and jump back up onto his feet, ready to fight. But a body where he was staggers forward into my arms. Hot blood sprays my face as I catch him, and when I look down, deep charcoal runs down the leathers bearing the crest I created.
The sharp end of a sword cuts through the center. Cano’s dark eyes lift from the blade protruding from his chest to meet mine as he falls forward. His mouth opens to say something as I stare in shock, narrowly aware of my surroundings, but nothing understandable passes his trembling lips. Only racking, bubbling, black blood-filled coughs come from him, and he drops. Both of us fall to our knees while the melee around us is held at bay by the rest of our family as they fight with honor to give us this moment. I sit in a state of shock, holding my once best friend in my arms as he bleeds out, having saved my brother when I couldn’t.
He pulls me closer, and I bury my fists into his leathers, careful not to jar the blade and cause him undue pain. Darkness descends all around us, a cloud of shadows filling my mind, my vision, and nothing makes sense.
“You saved him.” I say, through confusing tears, and his deep onyx eyes screw shut before he coughs, spraying my hands and chest with more dark blood.
“I deserve—far worse—than the—warrior's death—the gods—are allowing.” He coughs and sputters the broken sentence, and though war and destruction is happening all around us, it feels like time stands still where we sit in a shroud of darkness.
I wanted him dead.
At one point, I would have done it myself. I would have killed him with my bare hands, but I saw how he was changing. I saw glimpses of the man who was once my best friend, who I shared fears, truths, and memories with. I saw Cano again.
Kait slides to our side on her knees, looking down in shock at the man in my arms. She shakes her head in disbelief, her hands frantically shaking around the injury to his chest.
“I’m sorry—” Cano chokes on the words, and Kait lifts his blackened hand into her lap, winding her fingers through his. “You deserve so much more than I could have ever given you. I’m sorry I wasn’t better. Perhaps fate will be kinder to you in the future.” Confusion puckers the skin on my forehead as I watch Kait sob and fall forward, slamming her lips down on his blood-stained mouth.
“No, please, no!” She begs, cupping his face as his features fall slack. Tears streaking down her scarred face, contorted in pain and covered in filth of war. “Shift! Dammit you stubborn prick! SHIFT!” She screams in his face as ripples of magic like a shockwave seem to come directly from her words and causes us all to stumble back some. Shaking out of it, I turn to Maki as he reaches for Kait. She turns on him, throwing her hands anywhere she can land a blow.
“This can’t be happening!” She screams to the sky as she relents on her attack and falls into his chest. “This can't be happening.” She says again, much quieter, looking down at his still body with her face contorted in something far more raw than I have ever seen my best friend show. Maki holds onto her like an anchor.
“Maki,” I run my hand down my face, noticing that through everything that has happened, the soldiers are retreating. The fight dwindling as the number of bodies left standing shrinks. “Get them both out of here. Somewhere safe.” He solemnly nods, then barks orders at some of his men to gather Cano.
“Let me.” Trent presses in where the guards are beginning to lift Cano from the ground. “It’s the least I could do.” The line of his jaw is hard, and his eyes even harder, but when my little brother looks at me, his wings unfurling at his back, he is my father reincarnate. Although he appears strong and absolute, I see the same darkness that darkens my soul. Another thing I wish I could have saved him from. The broken edges that all Ravendene men have now sharpen him too. Maki lifts Kait into his arms as her fight gives out, and she buries her face into his chest.
“They will be safe.” He assures me before taking to the sky. The scene cleared, leaving only the dark stain of Cano’s blood in the snow and a new shadow on my soul.
A sensation crawls up my spine and forces me to turn to face the mountain at my back. Relief makes my heart drop at the sight. Raelle stands fierce, her stark-white hair billowing around her in a storm of waves. I can tell from here that the dress she wears is fit for a warrior queen. Her eyes glow like the moon, and as she raises her hand, I see a man at her side I instantly recognize as Osiris. The look of raw aggression on his face as he lifts the opposite hand of Raelle in unison. Massive power vibrates through the entire field of ruin. Black darkness consumes the early night as the sun’s waning light is snuffed out completely. Pandemonium remaining in its wake.