12. Raya
RAYA
“It was as though the sun beams were on fire, I begged them to burn me too.”
- RAYA’S JOURNAL.
The sun was already setting when I finally pulled myself from a dreamless slumber, creases from the bedsheets imprinted on my face. I felt almost normal, my cuts stitched and my headache now only a very dull thump in the back of my head. I hastily reached for the glass of water beside my bed and drained it immediately. I sat up slowly, attempting to flatten my wild hair.
The room was the same as when I woke hours ago, if it wasn’t for the stitches and blood stains, I might’ve thought Elijah and Khol were a dream. The sun painted colors of burned orange and deep red throughout my room and I felt the urge to reach out and touch them.
The weight of Jala’s words lived within me, floating along my bloodstream, never letting me forget my duty to the Sage Guard. I stood softly, my legs much stronger than before, and headed to the bathing room. I relieved myself, splashing cold water on my face and cleaning my teeth before staring at myself in the cracked mirror. A scorch mark starting at my chin, passing through my nose, and ending at my eyebrow sat faintly across my face. I traced my finger across the white lines hesitantly, almost expecting it to be hot beneath my fingertips.
Looking down at my hand I noticed the healing scorch marks running from my fingers, all the way up my arm and beneath my night gown. Without having to check, I knew the marks were covering my body. The thought did not repulse or scare me. Delight surged through me.
I had never felt more like myself.
A timid knock sounded on the door, breaking me from my gazing.
“Hello?” A small voice spoke from behind the thick wood.
I walked over soundlessly and twisted the handle. My months of training with the Sage Guard humming beneath my skin. Unexpectedly, a girl of similar age to me stood at the door’s threshold, piles of different fabrics balanced in her arms. Her black hair slipped over her shoulders and her eyes, small and narrow, were a bright emerald green.
“Ezra sent me,” she said by way of greeting, her eyes never quite meeting mine. “Fresh clothes,” she said as she placed the fabrics down. “Dinner is served in an hour.” A blush spread across her pale cheeks.
“Have you met Khol yet?” she asked. I nodded.
“I hope you’re feeling better.” She bowed her head. “I am Nai.”
“Raya,” I said softly. “You’re from the Eastern Continent?” I asked. She nodded.
“My friend Alias, his mother was too,” I said, fondly remembering Alias’s pale skin and the soft slant of his eyes. “It’s very nice to meet you, Nai,” I said with a nod of gratitude.
She returned the gesture, leaving the room soundlessly. I stood silently for a moment; my heart began to thump in my chest. I missed my friend terribly, the thought of him being harmed in any way caused panic to slip into my heart. I calmed myself quickly, distracting myself with the fine clothing in front of me.
The fabrics slipped through my hands softly, like sand in an hourglass. I had not expected fresh clothing or hospitality of any kind. The Sorcerers were cold, unfeeling, and I would not forget it.
A knock sounded at my door again and I grabbed the small dagger from underneath my pillow, hiding it beneath my dress.
“It’s Khol,” he said hesitantly, assumably wondering if I remembered who he was. I paused.
“Come in,” I said, trying to hide the irritation in my voice, and the door opened slowly. He walked in, his presence filling the room.
“Ezra sent me to ask if you are feeling well?” he asked, never dropping his warrior pose. I stared at him for a moment, almost not believing his words.
“Who is Ezra?” I moved closer to him. “Or will you answer with some ominous statement that gives me no indication where I am or when I’ll be freed from this bed chamber?” His face seemed to slacken.
“Set free? You are not being held captive, Raya,” he spoke sternly.
“Then why will no one give me any answers? I’ve been kept in this room for, only the Goddess knows how long, with nothing but my own thoughts?” I slumped onto my bed.
“You need to get dressed,” Khol said bluntly.
“Have you not been hearing anything I’ve been saying?”
“Yes, take your clothes into the bathing room, dress, and I’ll tell you everything,” he spoke plainly, and I opened my mouth to object but stopped as he shoved the clothes into my arms. I stomped to the bathing chamber and stripped to my nightgown hastily.
“I—” Khol began, his voice travelling through the crack in the door “We found you, unconscious, at the edge of Zetka.”
Memories of the safe house, the raid, and the death flooded my mind.
“We heard about the… blast you created, villagers reported seeing lightening and unfathomable heat. We hadn’t seen anything like it since… In a while.” He took a breath as I stepped into the forest-green gown. I scoffed at the dress, because obviously I couldn’t wear regular clothes.
“The Sage Guard,” he scoffed at the words, causing my teeth clamped together. “They were all too happy to give you up, you know how they feel about our kind.” I flinched.
Our kind.
“When Ezra and I found you, you were half dead. Beaten to a pulp and almost frozen to death.” My memory swam blindly, trying to avoid the torture I had encountered.
“I’m sorry they did that to you.”
A gap yawned open within me at the sincerity of his words. My eyes stung with unshed tears. Khol cleared the emotion from his throat and spoke again, almost as if he was attempting to right himself.
“There were marks from carriages and foot soldiers, but it was empty when we arrived. You were just lying there. To be honest, we thought you were dead.” He spoke about my life as though it had no meaning at all.
“And the man with me?” I had hoped Alias would have waited, even from afar, to make sure I was safe.
“Raya, when we found you,” he paused. “You were alone.”
I paused mid-dressing, my gown unbuttoned and my hair still wild. Swallowing back another tear I nodded to myself.
“Alone,” I whispered to myself.
“Yes, alone,” Khol repeated back.
Sadness drifted through me like a bad idea. How had I lost so much in such a short space of time? I wished that I could turn back time. Or punish Jala for taking me away from everything I’d even known. Tears rolled down my cheeks even as I scolded myself for crying.
Soldiers did not cry.
In the corner of my eye, I saw my hair begin to lift from my shoulders. The memory of Jala’s disgust and the pain she inflicted came roaring to life.
How dare she?! My skin pulsed softly. I turned to the mirror, staring at my reflection. The glass in front of me cracked, showing a thousand different images. All of them showing Khol now suddenly behind me, his arms on the basin either side of me. Caging me against his hard torso.
My chest heaved, each breath brushing my back against his chest.
“Raya, you need to calm down.” He leaned down, bridging the height gap between us, but I couldn’t calm down, I didn’t know how. I closed my eyes, the power pulsed.
“Raya, do not let it control you.”
Fat tears dropped onto the tile beneath our feet.
The mirror cracked again, falling into the sink with a crash.
“Raya,” Khol warned.
And then white-hot pain shot through my entire body, my eyes flying open. Khol had simply placed his hand on my shoulder. My hair dropped faster than it had risen, and the power slithered back down to the pit of my stomach.
“You are an embarrassment, learn some control,” he spat, quickly stepping away from me. Coldness leeched into where his warmth had pressed against me a moment ago. I turned to him, finally facing his brutally beautiful face.
“No one has ever taught me control,” I whispered through gritted teeth. We stood in a heated silence for a moment, heat pulsing of us. “How did you do that?” I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.
“What?”
“Make me stop.”
He paused for a moment and rolled his eyes.
“You really have no idea about any of this, do you?” He scoffed. “I am a MindWonderer, when I touched you, I took away your power and fed it to my own.” He looked down at my half-dressed state.
“Turn,” he demanded, and I did. He buttoned my dress, his warm fingers brushing against my cold skin.
I shivered, walking away as soon as he finished. I swept the mess that was my hair up, pinning it with the emerald hair pin Nai had delivered earlier. I marched past him, stepping into my army grade boots, the only thing I had left from the Foothills. Khol stared at me grimly, looking from his polished black boots to my old, dirty ones.
“Lead the way, prince,” I said with a smug smile, and we headed for the door. My body oozed false confidence. I didn’t know where I was and where I was going.
But what I did now… I was being taken to the leader of the Sorcerer’s.
My work was about to begin.