Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Thea
Dimitri immediately locked into battle with one guard while the other latched onto Nessira, holding tight as she began kicking and thrashing in his grasp. All the while, I stood locked in place, captive in Caldrius’ gaze.
“Going somewhere?” He teased.
Caldrius stood casually, hands tucked into his pockets. That characteristic unbothered smirk rested across his face, as if he thought this escape attempt was amusing. He started towards me, and I took a measured step backwards.
“I can’t be here, Caldrius.”
His jaw twitched. “This is your home.”
Nessira spewed venomous words the likes of which I’d never heard from her before as the clang of steel against steel sounded from Dimitri's fight, but I drowned them out, focusing entirely on the dark-haired man before me. His attention on me was just as absolute.
“You know as well as I do that I’m not safe here.” I kept my voice gentle, as if I could coax him into agreeing with this.
“And you would be safer out here? In the storm? Alone?” He pointed towards the woods, brows raised in disbelief just as a blast of icy wind tore past me, leaving my cloak billowing around my thighs.
I held his gaze, searching for the slightest bit of understanding or care.
Searching for the man who had been my friend.
“Caldrius, I have to go.”
“That wasn’t part of our arrangement, wife. You belong here. You belong on that throne, ruling over this realm.”
“I’m not ruling over anyone or anything!” Scoffing, I broke our stare for the briefest of moments. “I am a prisoner here. Hyrax rules, and in his absence, everyone looks to you.”
His eyes flickered with confusion, head leering back as if I had struck him. “And is that so wrong?”
I couldn’t tell whether he was serious or joking. His face was stoic, not betraying an ounce of the emotion underneath as he prowled closer and closer to me.
“Do this with me,” he implored, reaching out so quickly that I couldn’t stumble back fast enough to stop him from taking the fingers of my uninjured hand in his.
He stroked his thumb across the metal of my marriage band.
“Please. If you leave this war becomes unavoidable. If you stay, you and I can manage him. We can be the rulers we were both born to be.”
I lowered my brows in confusion as I glanced down at the place where our skin touched.
He sounded sincere.
He sounded so sincere that my heart actually sputtered, painfully. His eyes bore into mine, dark and impassioned, tracking the movement of my teeth biting down. Gently, he reached up to pull my lower lip from under my teeth with his thumb.
“Just come back inside,” he whispered, and even as Nessira screamed my name, begging me to run, I heard every word as clearly as if he had shouted them. “Please, come inside and we forget this happened and move on.”
“I’m asking you to let me go.”
The importance of this single moment echoed through my soul in a way I didn’t quite understand.
His eyes flashed. His grip tightened. “And I’m begging you to stay, Theadora. Stay here, with me. Call me your enemy if you must. Hate me if you need to. Just stay and let me continue trying to earn your forgiveness. Let me try to earn your affection.”
Not a friend.
I had never been his friend.
I didn’t know if it was because of me or because I looked like her, but Caldrius had never looked at me as his friend. Our marriage had never just been about securing him more power. It was real to him.
That was real heartbreak flashing on his features.
An apology bubbled in my throat.
My heart ached for what I was about to do.
But I had to do it.
I leaned forward, squeezing his hand, letting him come to me with a grateful smile, just as I sent energy coursing down the muscles in my legs and slammed my knee into his groin.
Caldrius doubled over, groaning even as his rage-filled eyes fell on me. His jaw opened with a scoff of betrayal. Heart pounding, I stumbled back, desperate to stay out of his grasp as he recovered all too quickly and marched towards me.
His arm snapped out, gripping hold of me, and I twirled, light on the balls of my feet, until I was behind him and ramming my elbow into his kidney. He grunted, and I ran, making it only a few feet before his icy grasp wrapped around my splinted wrist and squeezed.
The pain, which had thankfully become numb some time ago, returned with angry vengeance, the sensation bringing instant tears to my eyes as I screamed loud enough that every guard on the castle grounds must have heard it.
“Let go of me!”
My feet skidded against the stone pavement as he yanked me back towards those ivory walls. His hands clasped down on my arms, holding them with a vice-like strength. When I looked up into his dark eyes, my breath caught at the glossy dampness I found there.
“Let go of me, Caldrius,” I pleaded in a low tone. “I’m sorry, but I can’t stay here.”
“You won’t even try?”
I swallowed. “I have already.”
He froze, holding me steady as he looked down at me. I tilted my head, hoping my face expressed the apology I couldn’t bring myself to voice. He forced his gaze away from mine, sniffing deeply as he nodded to himself and tried to collect himself.
“Well, I guess that’s something,” he said with resignation, scraping a hand down his face. “Can we at least agree that we were friends?”
An aching kind of sadness pressed in on me, a deep pain that shook through me, sending familiar sparks shooting through my arms.
Friends, yes. One who wanted more and one who couldn’t give anything past what I already had.
“We are friends, Caldrius. That’s why you’re going to let me go.”
His lips quirked, tongue poking into his cheek. He glanced over his shoulder at the guards fighting with Dimitri and Nessira behind us. In the distance, torches were lit. The alarm drums began to sound, warning the guards of a threat.
He turned back to me. “Make it look convincing?”
Dimitri gasped behind me before groaning out in pain as Nessira screamed his name.
Caldrius’ pain wasn’t something I had expected or planned for, and part of me ached for having caused it. But I took a steadying breath and pushed aside that part of me. I locked her in a box in the smallest, most distant part of my heart, and I lifted my chin. I had to do this.
I’d been a prisoner for long enough.
From the day I entered this realm, someone was always eager to lock me inside those castle walls. Forced to dress how I didn’t want, act how I didn’t feel, marry who I didn’t love.
I would do it no longer.
“Thank you,” I breathed for just Caldrius to hear. He nodded, bracing himself as I prepared to strike out.
I grounded my feet, flexing my fingers before clenching them closed into a fist. I readied my strength, prepared to drive up my fist, and took one single inhale.
And inside the very core of my being, I felt a spark.
Power lanced through me, sparking through my veins and erupting out of my fingers. Caldrius fell back, shoved by my magic, before I could ever physically land a blow.
He faltered, awkwardly, falling back several feet in front of me while I desperately tried to cling to that minuscule sensation of magic. I searched for it, desperate to feel it once more, but as soon as it had come to me, it was gone once again, leaving us both staring wide-eyed at my hands.
In time, we glanced up, meeting each other's eyes, and Caldrius didn’t bother to hide his proud grin.
“Best get moving, darling.”
He winked, and then he shifted, eyes darkening as the world around us came back into focus.
I lurched backwards, running away just as Caldrius fell back into his role of dark prince. He reached for his sword, allowing me a few seconds to put a believable amount of space between us, before curling his upper lip into a snarl.
“Get back here!” he roared.
“Thea!” Nessira rushed out of the arms of her guard, brilliant flames climbing up his legs as she did. Her foot snagged on a fallen branch, and her steps came rushed as she tried to keep her balance and run towards me.
A loud grunt echoed as Dimitri slammed the pommel of his blade against the temple of the guard he fought, and the latter fell heavily onto the ground.
He pointed towards the woods even as his body twisted towards Caldrius and the Hyraxian guards that were rushing after us.
“Go!” Dimitri ordered as the drumbeats sounded louder and louder.
Nessira pulled at my arms, tugging me backwards even as I protested.
I couldn’t leave him. Dimitri had to come with us. We had to help him.
I heard Nessira’s hushed gasp of horror before I fully turned back towards the castle.
Dimitri stood between Caldrius and the guard he’d fought earlier. Caldrius’ lip was split, blood dribbling down his swollen jaw. He shuffled back a step, staring in disbelief at the blade that pierced through Dimitri’s chest from behind.
No.
The guard made a heaving grunt as he pulled at his sword. The weapon slid out of Dimitri and he fell to his knees with a heavy thud.
“We have to go,” Nessira insisted, yanking painfully at my arms.
I couldn’t move. I couldn’t blink through the cold horror that was squeezing my heart.
“Thea, come on,” Nessira tore at me. “We have to go. We have to go!”
“He needs help,” I mumbled, unable to look away from him even as I felt Caldrius’ eyes on me.
“He’s already dead!” Nessira screamed. “Now, we have to go.”
My feet budged, following where she pulled at me as a strange sense of numbness fell over me, dulling my senses. The night dimmed. The drums didn’t sound as intense anymore.
And I allowed myself to float in that detached state, taking solace in the emptiness there.
When we were far enough away that the guards couldn’t grasp onto us and pull us back, my steps slowed. Nessira pulled on my arms, tears streaking down her face as she begged me to keep going—to keep running.
But I found myself stilling, remembering the letter I had written to Clay—the request I had made of him.
I turned and stared at the castle.
That castle was my home. It was the centerpiece of the most beautiful of memories and the most horrid.
It stood at the edge of the bridge where I had first emerged into the Mortal Realm after my creation.
It was where the Dragon had beat me and forced his mouth on me.
And it was where Clay had taken me onto his balcony, extended a rose to me, and showed me how beautiful my powers were.
It was where Hyrax had taken everything away from me.
The Athenian castle was beautifully tragic, a presence in itself. The last piece in the chess game I had been playing since my creation.
I looked at my Nessira, staring deeply into terror-filled eyes, and lifted my chin.
“Burn it,” I ordered her. “Burn this castle to the fucking ground.”
For a moment, time stopped. She blinked, shaking her head.
“Do it now.” I repeated.
She brought a ball of fire to each of her palms, daring a single, final questioning gaze. Whatever she saw on my face must have settled her doubts, because without another word she turned to the castle gardens, and set them ablaze without another questioning glance.
And then we ran.
Breathless. In pain. Crying. Alone.
We ran while the castle of Athenia burned behind us.