Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Healed
MAGNOLIA
Iwas restless. There was so much more I wanted to know for this hunt, but couldn’t ask.
I had no idea what Dahes’ idea of being a damsel meant, and I couldn’t stop thinking about his words—that my hunt would start in the morning.
It didn’t make sense, not if the drakin wasn’t dropping off the next criminal for two days.
I paced my room another four times before the stone groaned open.
A ghost floated at the other end with a map in her hand that she extended to me. I smiled softly, walking toward her.
“Thank you,” I murmured as I took the paper. I had no idea how she was able to hold tangible things, and I never asked.
Her eyes softened as she took me in, but she didn’t say anything.
She was beautiful. Soft wavy hair and light eyes that somehow looked like there was color to them even though they were all gray.
Everything about ghosts was gray—like the moment their bodies stopped breathing, the color left their souls.
I had no idea how she died or when, but she’d been here the entire seven years of my slavery.
I tried to stare at her face and not look down—however you died was how you entered the After.
I’d seen some ghosts shredded to ribbons, some without heads, some with their skin burned off.
But for some reason her body bothered me the most. Her stomach was slightly swollen and darker shades of gray ran down her legs.
I didn’t need the red coloring to know that it was blood.
She was pregnant, or had been pregnant prior to dying.
So many nights I wanted to ask her about her baby, but I didn’t want to remind her of what she lost. In my first year of slavery, I prayed every night for a year straight that her baby was alive somewhere out in the world, but then the thought turned sour, and I realized that no matter what, she never got to meet the life she created.
She reminded me of myself. Trapped. Sad. Lonely.
I always wondered if my Token was inspired by her—by his ghosts in general.
It made me question the two Suns—where our Tokens were claimed to be gifted from. Was our power predetermined before we were born or was it sparked by the choices we made in life? All we knew for certain about the Tokens was that Wielders’ unique powers came from either desire or necessity.
Nessium, the Sun Goddess of Necessity, and Cupio, the Sun Goddess of Desires.
But if I hadn’t become Dahes’ slave, if I hadn’t needed my Token that night, would mine have still been the same?
I liked to dream about what it might have been if it was made from desire instead. The gift of flight always sounded nice, but it was mainly because I dreamed of flying straight through the thick fog and as far away from Moriann as I could possibly get.
Hell, even invisibility would have been more useful than what I actually got. My Token was transparency. All I could do was turn myself gray and make my body intangible, and even then I couldn’t control it.
But I guess it didn’t matter. I did become Dahes’ slave and my Token manifested because of it, because I needed him not to touch me.
The ghost smiled again before turning around and floating down the hall.
Despite the multitude of them that filled the palace, not everyone that died remained a ghost. The only thing that was the same for everyone was that you had to pass through Dahes.
It didn’t matter if you were from Moriann or Viven—once you died, your soul went to him.
I just had no idea what happened after that.
I couldn’t comprehend the logistics of how some souls moved on and some couldn’t, and it wasn’t like I could ask Dahes. One time I had questioned him about death and what happened in the After. His only answer was a grin as he got into my personal space and taunted me to kill myself and find out.
The first time I saw a ghost, it was terrifying. They weren’t common on the streets of Moriann, but everyone knew Dahes’ castle was filled with them.
Aside from the one who just gave me the paper, they all gave me the creeps.
As soon as she rounded the corner, I moved from the door, not wanting to see any more float past my room. The stone slammed shut behind me the moment I cleared the threshold, sealing me inside.
Finally looking down at what she gave me, my reality started to seep in. It was a map of Viven and all four Provinces that made up the kingdom.
I could see the Black Sands sprawled out, cutting the kingdoms in half before they met with the Valdern Forest on Viven’s side and the Senith Cliffs on Moriann’s.
I couldn’t believe I was actually going into Viven. I would finally see the kingdom my kind originated from, and for however long I was there, Dahes wouldn’t be inside my head.
I walked over to the chair, trying not to smile as I studied the map.
This was the first hunt I was actually excited to go on.
The cut across my neck burned, but it was nothing compared to the pain clawing up my throat. My voice was raw, scathing ulcers were running down my esophagus every time my sobs pierced the chilled air. I couldn’t stop screaming as the hole over my heart grew, as it felt like I was the one drowning.
The bread had been ripped out of my pocket. The guy who attacked me was long gone as I sank onto the bank of the river, shrieking as I watched two blue eyes disappearing within the translucent current.
It all happened so fast…
The moment the knife sliced the first layer of skin over my neck, Masin attacked, jumping onto the back of the guy holding me down.
But he was too strong and Masin was too starved, too weak.
I hadn’t even registered the pain across my throat before he was pushed into the river and the bread was ripped out of my pocket.
MASIN. MASIN. NO! HELP. SOMEBODY—
I kept screaming, kept sobbing, but only ringing registered through my ears.
I was two seconds away from jumping into the river after him. I didn’t want to be anywhere in this world he wasn’t. He was the only person I ever cared about, the only person I ever loved. He couldn’t be gone…
A shadow stepped into my view, blocking the iridescent water.
I tilted my head up through the fog, but all I saw was a blur of white. Tears had consumed my vision, casting everything in a haze.
“I can bring him back,” the deep voice crooned.
I blinked then, the tears falling down my cheeks enough to let me glimpse horns and a silhouette of a man.
“Please,” I sobbed, my voice still raw. “I’ll do anything.”
More tears fell, enough for me to make out glimpses of an alabaster smirk, like skin dipped in white paint.
“I will bring his soul back, if you give me yours.”
“You want my soul?” I sank back onto my knees. I stopped screaming now as his words registered. I’d do it. I’d do anything to save Masin.
“Yes,” the voice crooned. “Your soul will be mine to control.”
He might have said more, but I was already nodding, already agreeing on blind faith.
It was only after I said yes that I realized the man wasn’t human at all. He’d been hovering over the river—the same river that the moment you touched the foamy currents, you’d die.
The river that King Dahes of the Dead owned.
And I just sold him my soul.
Dahes opened the door to my room the moment I woke up screaming from my nightmare.
He paused in the frame, letting the light filter in. I sat up, clutching the blanket to my chest as I pushed my back against the stone wall, feeling the sweat cling to me.
A single sconce lit the hallway, and I fought the urge to stare at the ghost that flew behind him.
“Do you have the map memorized?” he asked, his eyes searing into me.
I nodded.
I stayed up well into the night studying it, knowing I wouldn’t be allowed to bring it with me today.
“Good,” his voice loosened as he stepped inside my room. My body tensed. He never did this. He never checked on me before a hunt, and he rarely came to my room first thing in the morning.
My days were usually spent waiting to be called on. I had hours to make myself numb, to shut off my emotions before I was forced to see him, but I couldn’t reset myself first thing in the morning.
Seven years had passed since I made my deal, and I still couldn’t stop dreaming about the night it happened. It was like all my emotions crashed out of me while I slept. I normally stayed horizontal, letting my ragged breathing fade before I washed off the remnants of my nightmare.
Breathe. One. Two. Three. Four. Exhale.
I forced myself to do a cycle of breathing, forced myself to not think about that night, to shake off my lingering nightmare and focus on the devil inside my room. He told me my hunt would start in the morning—whatever that meant—but I assumed he’d send a sentry to come and get me.
“Do you have any questions on where I want you to meet when it’s over?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No. I’m ready.”
“Good. Let’s go.”
“I… I have to get dressed.” My voice wavered. I could feel my nightgown sticking to me, could feel my long hair snaking around my neck, plastering to my skin.
“Don’t stop on my account.” His voice was smooth as he gestured to the foot of my bed. A new, folded clean gown was waiting for me.
“I—I normally have a bath before I dress,” I stalled, not wanting to change in front of him.
Dahes’ eyes narrowed on my chest, on the fact that my breathing was still ragged.
Shit. Stop thinking, Magnolia. Be numb.
“By all means.” He nodded toward the arch in my room. It might have been a door at one point, but now it was just an open space to walk through. My bathroom was simple. A singular clawed tub sat in the middle of the room with a basin to the side.