24. Esther
ESTHER
Rain pelts against the roof and window, forcing a small leak to drip onto the wooden floor. Flashes of lightning streak as my temperament further sours. I sit on the knee-high wooden stool and wipe over my body, looking at my naked self in the mirror.
It’s been a long time since I admired my body.
Mirrors weren’t exactly cheap to come across, and we certainly didn’t have them in my shared living space back in Caldom Kingdom.
I wipe over the back of my neck, my gaze tracing every part that Regent touched, that low unfolding in my stomach beginning to beat at my core again.
Infuriating is the best way to describe him. I throw the cloth into the bucket and dress in the new attire, finding that it fits me almost perfectly. I prefer the black leather opposed to the light-colored fabric we’d acquired from the Cadalla Temple.
The bed, although the comfiest thing I’ve laid my head on in the last three weeks, doesn’t call to me as it should.
My body aches from the nonstop travel, especially today, trailing through the eerie forest known as the Passage of Child.
I don’t know how far we’ve traveled, but my body craves rest. My mind, however, wants answers and to get to the bottom of why Regent so insistently brought us here.
Who is so important for Regent to meet with in the dead of night?
My invisible chains rattle against the enchantment Regent cast on the room; it zaps every time my magic gently brushes against it. I know indefinitely that even when I leave, he’ll be aware. Lucky for me, I don’t care.
“Grimace,” I say in a chipper tone, lacing my leather boots. He lazily yawns, slowly coming out from beneath the chair. “How about we get out of here?” I wriggle my brows, and he quickly sits up, excited by the prospect.
I remove the hairpiece from my hair and use the fine end against the lock in the door.
I wonder if in Selena’s wildest dreams or conversations with the Fates, she knew I’d be using its finery for something such as this.
The rain intensifies, battering down harder, and I barely make out the subtle click of the door unlocking.
I peek down the hall, greeted by the sound of the rowdy patrons downstairs. I pull my hood farther down to conceal my hair and Grimace tucked behind my neck. I don’t make eye contact as I walk through the drunken tables, dodging a patch of ale spilled on the ground.
Very few look in my direction, and the cold air assaults me when I come to a stop on the porch.
Beyond the village, the trees that circle the land hold an eerie presence as it fades into darkness.
My magic stretches out, greeted by harsh, cruel, and curious whispers, forcing me to immediately retract my intrigue.
Whatever is out there has me second-guessing any kind of escape tonight. And so my chains follow Regent’s familiar magic, curious who or what brought him here.
A woman? Family? Another bargain? The more I uncover about Regent, the more I might be able to use against him. I have no doubt he’s already sensed my escape, but I gamble on the idea that he’s unable to track me.
Water streams down the rundown homes where locals sleep as I follow his magic, like an acute scent my magic has come to relish in. It’s unnerving the way it attaches itself to him. Yet every time I consider walking away, it becomes more difficult.
I hide behind a bush, peeking through two pieces of wood and into the stables. Lightning strikes, and I get a flash of a man sitting cross-legged, wearing glasses that glow with light. When he removes them and lifts them onto his head, I realize it’s the dealer from inside.
“Did the enchantment work?” Regent asks the man, holding something.
“Oh, it worked all right. Your blood bound beautifully, but whatever that thing inside it is, it’s evil. I won’t have my name on it.”
Regent flips it between his fingers. What did he get enchanted? What is it for? Why is it evil?
The man quickly packs up his things. “This is dark magic, beyond me. The gods are playing games.”
The gods are playing games. I overheard Master Kain say the same thing.
Some say they could speak to the gods, depending on who they were favored by.
But Master Kain often said the Fates were playing games in favor of Neina, but I always assumed he was saying that because he preferred the hope that Neina’s rule brought upon his kingdom.
My leather coat turns cold under the harsh rain, and I grab at the edge of my hood when the wind dares to throw it back. Something stirs beside me, and I freeze, my heart pounding as lightning hits the ground, and I choke from the sheer horror. Two yellow eyes sparkle at me through the bushes.
Two slender, bony creatures stand on their hind legs behind the shrubbery. Their black hands dragging long nails behind them on the ground as they walk out from the Passage of Child.
The one closest, peering at me through the bush, however, barely moves.
It simply crooks its head to the side, the rest of it enveloped by the shadows.
Its bony structure seems reptilian and smells of rotting flesh.
The black razor-sharp teeth show themselves as the Felia-blessed beast smiles and I realize it’s watching me.
A hand clasps around my mouth, my back slammed against Regent’s chest as he pulls me in, his earthy cologne a welcome reprieve from the gagging stench of the beast.
The beast stretches farther onto its hind legs, wobbling from side to side until it reaches at least seven feet tall. Its front legs are longer and sag to the ground.
Regent picks me up from the waist and slowly places me onto the back of his mare. Regent never looks away from the beast, mechanically moving as it slowly walks toward us with interest, sniffing, the frills under its jawline expanding.
Regent still doesn’t look at me, but places a finger to his lips, signaling me to remain quiet.
Flames shoot into the sky, and a bell rings.
“Idiots,” Regent grits. The beast’s eyes flare as it locks onto us, its eyes dilating into tiny pupils as it lunges.
Regent throws up a muddy wall that the beast slams into.
He pulls himself up behind me and immediately redirects Reene in the opposite direction.
The beast screeches, and I involuntarily cover my ears, which feel like they’re on the verge of bursting as it scales the mud wall, talons first.
“Don’t look into their eyes when they’re locked in on their prey,” Regent commands as he holds me tightly, his muscles on either side of me like a protective wall. “Let me deal with them.”
Screams erupt around us; shadows and flames collide. Beasts of the night jump from the rooftops and crawl from the very same forest we’d walked through only that day.
These are the beasts of the Passage of Child, I eerily realize. But Regent said they don’t leave the forest?
A man’s scream pulls me in, and when I look to the tavern porch at the two drunk men who were passed out only minutes ago, a tall black beast delicately picks out one of their eyes with its long talons.
Frills flare around the beast’s neck as it chomps down on the old man’s face.
His friend lies bleeding out beside him, gasping with eye sockets raw and plucked.
Bile creeps up my throat as I look forward, my magic catching onto the dark pooling fragments of the beasts surrounding us.
I don’t feel the feral rush of my magic wanting to connect with them like it had the dark birdlike beasts.
These beasts are sickening, rolling in the pleasure of fear and nightmares combined.
I read of horrifying beasts in Master Kain’s library, but it would never, in any way, prepare me for this.
The beasts move like wraiths, their magic quickly encroaching on us.
It isn’t like what I felt in the forest, an idle curiosity coming from them; now it’s predatory.
They want to eat me. A terror I’ve never known grips me by the throat as I realize I’m only a prized possession to devour.
Their dark magic acts like a cloak, my own magic sparking and fighting the net as they surround us, while Regent steers us toward the opening of the trees.
Figures creep out onto the path in front of us, and his magic twists and folds, sinking some, harpooning others, but more spring up out of thin air as if a phantom after they fall.
My veins pump with adrenaline. I’m aware that if I connect with Regent’s magic now, I might jeopardize his use of the magic, which is far more apt to getting us out alive than what I am in using earth magic.
I sink further into myself, spiraling in my helplessness and fear gripping around my throat like a noose.
The magic of one creature bites at mine, and my eyes snap in its direction on my left, my hand going to my waist to the hilt of my blade. Jutting out of its slender reptile-like face, its yellow eyes consume me. Its front legs dragging on its knuckles as it runs beside us, keeping pace.
Everything surrounding us becomes irrelevant: the screams quiet, the trees blanketed in darkness. All that I know are those unwavering eyes. They shift into two yellow balls, moving back and forth like a calming trance, as everything but those fade to black.
Children’s voices and chants echo as the yellow balls bounce from side to side in an invisible arch, tapping a ground I cannot see.
And then a child stands in front of me as if always having been there.
It smiles as its head sways from one side to the other, those yellow eyes forcing my own head to mimic its motion.
The child’s eyes start to bleed as it smiles sweetly, its lips growing wider to show carnivorous teeth.
My magic stirs within me like a vicious, violent creature jerking back as the child attempts to soothe it inside this tomb. The children’s chants in the distance roll into laughter, then quiet sobs, and finally into violent screams.