Chapter 6
Chapter Six
THE SHADOW
The Guilda’s Holding Cells
The Shadow watched, locked in the cells of the Sanctum, fury pounding through his veins as the needle slid into the delicate skin of his obsession’s neck.
It took everything he had not to break the restraints the brothers of The Guilda believed would hold him, child’s play really.
Ones meant to hold a boy, not a man, like he.
Words filtered over the speakers as the pieces suddenly clicked into place.
That nickname clued him into who had been sent to steal the Yates’ heir away.
Audrey’s body went limp; her ethereal eyes became hidden as her lids fluttered closed and her fight went away.
It was the barely noticeable outline of the phone in her pocket though that had The Shadow relaxing.
As the realization of that deliberate oversight dawned on him, they were allowing her a way to escape—to defeat this trial that was meant to break the Initiate’s sanity early on. Make them more complacent, easier to control.
Easier to mould.
“Imbeciles…” His fury dialled up again as a third figure appeared on screen.
Their face was carefully hidden from view, hood meticulously drawn up to obscure even the best technology from uncovering who it was.
Only the tip of the mask they wore was visible—clawed, pointed, bone-white instead of the usual black with skeletal feathers macabrely attached to the cheekbones.
Ominously, they tipped their face up, death-coloured eyes mocking The Shadow as the unknown figure stared right where the camera was hidden.
The unknown presence lifted their hand—gloved with traces of dried blood congealed on the tips of the fingers—and slowly bent their fingers in a wave meant to incite rage.
One meant to show who had the upper hand tonight and who did not.
His obsession, Audrey Yates, now lay bound.
Unconscious and in the throes of a nightmare if he had to guess from the way her limbs twitched and thrashed, the way her chest rose rapidly as if unable to catch a breath.
That stranger still stared at the camera, long fingers reached up to draw down the rash guard covering his mouth.
Pale skin flashed as The Shadow watched, hands yanking at the ropes meant to keep him away…
Scarred lips mouthed words that had all his emotions stilling though, words that sent a chill through him as he realized where Audrey’s first trial would take place and what The Guilda was hoping to achieve as trial one officially began.
“You are all a secret, King. One this princess…was not supposed to know…”
The three intruders gathered Audrey, taking care to prevent further damage to her as her limbs continued to jerk.
The Shadow was unsurprised when the one who injected her paused briefly to glance at the camera.
The shadows of his demented jackal mask were now visible, his fingers signing a warning that whatever they gave her would cause ripple effects for the weeks and months to come.
The Shadow froze the frame after the final brother of The Guilda left.
The slam of the Yates' front door was ominous over the speakers the forefathers were forcing him to bear witness and listen to.
Zooming in on the ground, he blew up the syringe, hoping for a clue as to what exactly was given to the girl he was meant to watch during the Viperae Rosarum Ludi this year.
Horror filled him as he saw the colour of the forgotten vial. A tortured whimper escaped as he realized why that warning was given to him. Sodium thiopental. This drug was only given to those The Guilda deemed betrayers, liars, and cheats—a sedative and a hallucinogen.
Even more deadly, though, was the way it was found to unlock hidden memories and long-dead truths, betraying the secrets of those hiding dangerous skeletons The Guilda wanted leverage over.
An aphrodisiac as well—the one thing The Shadow was not truly concerned with since it was likely Audrey would confound them all tonight, as they tested her mind and inner fortitude in the forest where her tangled web of secrets began…
where a young girl was left alone fifteen years ago…
They were taking his obsession back to where her first betrayal began, the cliffside forest that was treacherous to those unfamiliar with it during the day and deadly to those who knew the routes to take at night.
All because she was forced to hide a truth The Guilda had lost control over when her adoptive parents decided to feed her to the wolves.
A trial meant to break. To destroy. A secret they wanted to erase but also wanted to extract by any means they could. Even if it meant breaking the girl who The Shadow had tirelessly watched and waited for, since she was a child, while he himself was only just a boy.
Metal grinding against stone startled him from his thoughts.
A key scraped in a lock, and air whistled in between the bars of the cell he had been locked in since last night when he was summoned to the Sanctum to learn of the first trial.
A graciously given warning The Guilda had packaged it up as a threat, he now realized—one meant to get him alone, catch him off guard and unprepared.
The only reason the forefathers were able to get the upper hand on him.
“Go home, Umbra. Stay there. Don’t let them have cause to think your loyalty does not lie with The Guilda. You know what will happen if they believe deceit is coming from one of the loyal sons their blood-soaked society was built from…”
The Shadow stood, the restraints falling to the floor as he shook his arms out, then his legs.
Needle pricks of sensation coursed his body as blood rushed into his hands and feet, blurring his vision and heating his cheeks.
The Shadow casted a dangerous look at The Rose, a member who had been popular tonight.
Words he wished to say refused to leave his lips as he shook out the final feelings of numbness.
He roughly pushed past The Rose, jarring him into the bars of the cell as he pounded up the stairs, knowing in his gut that his plans for tonight were far from over.
No, they had only just begun
AUDREY
Trial One
19 May 2021
I was no longer at home—the smell of dirt and pine clued me in first. The coarse feel of rope binding my arms, the rough grit of bark against my back, the grogginess lingering in my mind that I tried desperately to shake off after coming to.
Cold, alone, and bound after being drugged… or so I assumed.
Waves hitting rock alerted my senses. The howls in the woods confirmed my suspicion that I had been left bound to a tree in the middle of the woods of Alabastor Cove.
Testing the restraints, I winced as the rope burned into my skin.
The stickiness of my blood provided temporary relief from the unwelcome texture of the rope and uncomfortable sensation of my arms being numb.
Shaking my head, I tried to recall how I had gotten here…what was I doing? Worry clouded my mind as I came up blank…
Not again! No…I’m better this time…
Blackness was all I remembered after walking downstairs in the Yates' mansion. Dark nothingness, and the cold sensation of something foreign filling my veins…
No…no. I am not sleepwalking again…I can’t be…I’m not—
Images began flooding my brain. Still shots of faceless figures, masked men, and black cloaks. A whispered warning, as what my brain now knew was a sedative flooded my system, clued me in to how I came to be here tonight. Become what they fear, zmeyushka.
The importance of the nickname niggled at the back of my mind, but the memory of its significance was unable to break free. I sighed, my relief brief as it became clear I had not sleepwalked out here again…
Footsteps broke the silence of the woods, fallen branches and fragile leaves breaking as someone got closer, closer, and closer still to where I was tied up and kept prisoner against this tree. The moon casted a faint glow right where a figure breached the shadows.
Small, dainty. Diminutive. Feminine.
A robotic voice slithered through the clearing, the tone light with a thin undertone that warned of violence and danger should I refuse to give them what they asked. “Little Ellsworth…your time has come…”
As if they became a ghost, the once-loud footsteps became silent. Until the girl—no, woman—was right in front of me. A glint caught the moon’s ray as she cut the ropes, dropping the knife and a second object—a phone, I realized, as she silently backed away…
“The choice is yours, princess…warn your King, or complete the trial. Use that intelligence of yours to find your way. But know this: if The Guilda learns of what happened here tonight, your life becomes forfeit, heiress or not. Secret identities have no place within the new powers rising within The Guilda now.”
Like a shadow, the figure disappeared without a trace. Desolate silence gripped at me again, a plan already forming for how I would get out of these woods tonight…If only I did not have to lie about what I would soon come to know…My choice of who to call might have wavered or changed.
If I truly knew what lay in wait once I had completed the trials for a seat I was born into, yet The Guilda refused to let me claim, my decision to call my king may have changed…