Chapter 9
Nine
Adelasia
I jolt awake. My body is drenched in sweat. Limbs tangled in sheets, throat raw from screaming, and head throbbing and spinning.
Kaius is holding me so tight I feel like I might burst, and Rowan’s grip on my hand is as tight as he can manage. They speak to me, but I can’t make out any words. It feels like I’m still half in the Well, underwater and drowning in darkness.
They may be grounding me, but I don’t feel safe.
All I can do is stare into nothing and wonder how much of that was a dream, and how much was a prophecy? Was that really the Priestesses warning me, or just my imagination playing vile tricks on me?
I sit up and pull away from them both, wiping my messy hair away from my sweaty face. My hands tremble in my lap, with my blackened fingers feeling heavier than usual.
Kaius tenderly traces a finger up my cheekbone and holds my jaw in his hand. “What did you see?”
“The Well,” I say. “It’s calling to me.”
Kaius and Rowan exchange a glance. Their eyes examine me, two of them cautious, two of them curious.
“Yekaterina said I stole from them. This magic in me…they want it back. I have to go back.”
“No,” Kaius snaps. “You will not be going back there. I will not let you throw yourself into the Blackwood again because of a nightmare.”
“Kaius,” Rowan warns. “You know it wasn’t just a nightmare. One does not simply dream of the Well. It’s calling to her because it’s not done with her.”
I turn my head to look at him, and I find no smugness there, only concern. It twists my chest.
“Don’t you see they’re trying to scare her?” Kaius shouts.
“Don’t you see the magic is ripping her apart?”
“Enough,” I breathe. The word slices through the air like a blade, but they don’t hear me, their bickering at each other growing louder.
My breathing turns uneasy and the irritation soaks into my bones and turns into raw fury.
The walls begin to tremble, but they’re still so caught up in each other that they don’t see it. They don’t see me.
“Stay away from her, Rowan.”
“Why? Because I see her for what she is now? Because I’m trying to save her from the rot that’s eating her alive?”
“She’s not yours to save. She’s mine–”
“I am not a possession!”
My voice bounces off the walls in an eerie, unsettling way. The darkness bursts outward from my chest unexpectedly, pushing both of them off the bed and onto the floor on their backs.
I shakily stand upright and plant myself near them, standing above them like the queen I know I am.
“You speak around me like I’m not here. Like I am a problem to solve. I am not a broken thing you two must take turns trying to fix.”
They both look at me, but not as I want to be seen. My throat suddenly tightens in a defeated way, and my anger recedes like a tide into broken despair.
“I’m scared,” I admit. “And neither of you are listening.” I turn away from both of them dismissively. “Get out.”
“Adelasia–” they say together.
“Now! Both of you, out!”
My voice shakes the very foundation of the Obsidian Palace. Silence follows as they obey.
Obey. I take a deep breath of relief when a weight feels like it’s rolled off my shoulders. Their submission makes me feel powerful and strong. My fingers begin to tremble again, and I watch in horror as the rot crawls further up my palms.
I sink to the floor and my fingers clench into the cold marble, cracking it under me. I try to steady my breathing and close my eyes, trying to remember the face of the dead man in my dream.
Was it Kaius, or was it Rowan?
No matter how hard I focus, all I can see is the blood.
And the worst part is…there’s a part of me that doesn’t care.